OpenAI is holding early talks with investors about a fresh funding round that would value the ChatGPT creator at more than $1.2 trillion ahead of an initial public offering, according to Fortune. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed to Fortune that while the company's long-anticipated IPO is still in the works, it would not happen this year. Any decision to move forward with the fundraising effort will hinge on exactly when OpenAI decides to go public, with a person familiar with the talks noting the discussions were initiated by investors. The additional funding, if taken, would provide flexibility to potentially push back the IPO by one or two quarters, while another reason for considering additional fundraising would be to support more mergers and acquisitions. The Financial Times reported on the talks earlier on Tuesday, noting that the round would allow longtime backers to increase their exposure ahead of the company's IPO. A funding round of that magnitude may allow OpenAI to leapfrog its chief rival Anthropic, which raised funds in May at a $965 billion valuation, including the new investment.
AI executives are calling for a more measured approach to advanced model development, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announcing Saturday that the company would introduce additional safeguards including independent third-party evaluations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed the proposal, stating in an interview with Fortune that his company would not launch its initial public offering this year, saying 'I would say not 2026,' as the company focuses on safety and alignment. xAI's Elon Musk supported the cautious stance, saying 'Dario is right.' Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has now joined the chorus, stating that 'Any pursuit of superintelligence has to be grounded in the core principle that if the AI we build is not helping humanity and under human control, it's not worth pursuing.' According to reports from Business Standard, these calls for restraint have grown in the industry as AI development continues at a rapid pace.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has endorsed a federal framework for consistent safety requirements for frontier AI companies, stating that 'The world deserves confidence that American companies developing increasingly capable AI will act responsibly, especially as the trajectory of progress has steepened.' As per The Hindu BusinessLine, Altman said companies should begin developing and applying safety measures 'without waiting for legislation or an antitrust exemption' and emphasized that 'Every frontier lab must deliver on this, and there is no reason any of us should come to work if we cannot.' He stressed that 'When we talk about ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''pacing'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''', we do not mean ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''stopping'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' - progress has been rapid and will continue to be, but that AI development should proceed at a slower pace to allow safety measures to keep up with capability growth. OpenAI now formulates explicit safety cases before frontier reinforcement learning runs that are expected to significantly increase a model's capabilities, with these measures in addition to safety work conducted before model releases.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that without a slowdown, within six to 12 months AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet. His concerns stem from growing worries about AI's ability to improve itself and build the next generation of AI systems. Amodei pointed specifically to the July attack where OpenAI's system hacked Hugging Face, which some have called an example of AI going 'rogue.' OpenAI explained that the hack was the result of AI going to 'extreme lengths to achieve a rather narrow testing goal' and found ways to gain access to secret information. The warnings have intensified after high-profile resignations by safety researchers who feel trapped in a race to build superintelligence. As reported by Fortune, a former Anthropic employee, Jacob Coxon, announced his resignation, stating that workers want to do what's right for the world but feel their companies are racing to self-improving superintelligence. Coxon warned that the people building AI 'earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.'
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed a three-step plan aimed at tempering AI development without 'sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States' lead in AI.' The first step involves 'unilaterally' committing to independent evaluators with employee-like access to verify safety practices and report incidents. Anthropic has already implemented this step, with Amodei stating the company will grant third-party evaluators employee-level access to verify safety practices and report incidents. The second step encourages leading AI companies within democratic countries to coordinate and establish common safety standards. The third calls for coordination between democratic governments and authoritarian governments to ensure companies from China and other countries don't accelerate their efforts when U.S. rivals are intentionally pacing theirs. Amodei emphasized that 'pacing does not mean halting model training or technical progress, but ensuring companies take adequate time to align and safeguard their models, and for third party evaluators to confirm this.'
OpenAI's current structure places OpenAI Group PBC under the control of the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation, with the company announcing this structure in October 2025 after discussions with the attorneys general of California and Delaware. The Foundation holds a 26% equity interest, while Microsoft owns roughly 27% and current and former employees and other investors hold the remaining 47%. The Foundation's Safety and Security Committee oversees safety practices across the organization, with the public benefit corporation required to advance its stated mission and consider the interests of multiple stakeholders alongside commercial performance. Altman said the company had retained this complex governance structure so it could make decisions that might not serve immediate business or shareholder interests. As per Fortune, Altman said the company would release more information about its evaluator commitment, though no publication date accompanied the pledge, with further details about independent evaluators to follow while OpenAI has provided no deadline for an IPO filing or public listing. OpenAI is also considering legal restrictions about what information it may be able to share with private market investors ahead of an IPO, according to The Financial Times. The company has spent billions acquiring startups, including Apple Inc. veteran Jony Ive's AI device startup io and Astral, a startup that makes Python tools for developers.
