OpenAI has secured an initial $11 billion of a funding round at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, below the $1.4 trillion valuation widely reported as its original target. The first close represents about 37% of the reported fundraising goal; a further portion of up to $9 billion has not yet closed, and the total could reach $20 billion. SoftBank and Abu Dhabi’s MGX participated, but the remaining investors, terms, and use of funds were not disclosed. CFO Sarah Friar said the valuation is nearly 50% higher than in March, when OpenAI raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation. She also cited 70% quarterly business growth, doubled enterprise activity, 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users, and a $1 billion advertising run rate, without giving revenue totals.
The smaller, lower-priced financing highlights a gap between OpenAI’s growth claims and investor appetite after a selloff in AI stocks. That matters differently for Microsoft and NVIDIA: Microsoft recorded a $207 million GAAP income gain from its OpenAI stake in the September quarter, but the company’s Azure growth is a much larger earnings driver. NVIDIA is more exposed to whether AI labs can keep financing their expansion; OpenAI’s existing and planned commitments involve about 12 gigawatts of compute, while NVIDIA says frontier labs are growing beyond what their finances can support. Anthropic’s planned Nasdaq listing could further shape valuations. Whether OpenAI completes the round and whether NVIDIA meets its upcoming guidance are key tests for investors assessing AI funding risk.
Summary generated by AI from the linked article. hn.today is not affiliated with Hacker News or Y Combinator.
Culper Research disclosed a short position in Nvidia, alleging that more than 20% of its fiscal 2026 compute revenue still came from China through diverted GPUs and Southeast Asian intermediaries. It cites alleged links among Alibaba, chip buyer Megaspeed, server assembler Aivres, and Chinese customers; these are claims by the short seller. (twitter.com)
Harvest’s new owner, Bending Spoons, raised one freelancer’s monthly price from $13.32 to $133.98 or added a 2% fee to payments on its cheaper plan. Harvest also replaced customer email support with AI-generated replies, prompting the author to seek another invoicing service. (aphyr.com)
Trump Media’s outside investors have lost more than $2.2 billion as the company’s stock price plunged and its social media business struggled to attract customers. President Trump’s stake is now valued at about $460 million, down from more than $6 billion near the stock’s peak. (nbcnews.com)
Democrats’ midterm victory sets up congressional investigations into Trump family crypto profits and industry ties, with new subpoena powers starting in January. The crypto sector spent nearly $200 million backing candidates, but many of its favored contenders lost. (ft.com)
Anthropic’s declining expected IPO valuation is raising questions about investor appetite for AI companies. Its public-market performance could influence valuations across the broader AI sector. (2tinteractive.com)
Fox has taken control of Roku’s streaming platform, which reaches more than 100 million US households. The acquisition gives Fox a major foothold in streaming distribution. (theverge.com)
Today's best Hacker News stories, summarized and screenshotted, one email a day.