News & Analysis

driven by the PitchBook Platform
Wall street and financial district, wide angle view looking up

Featured image by Howard Kingsnorth/Getty Images

AI

OpenAI valuation surpasses every VC-backed IPO

The round, one of the largest in VC history, puts OpenAI’s valuation above Meta’s at the social media giant’s IPO

OpenAI wrapped up its $6.6 billion financing at a $157 billion valuation—a remarkable achievement that raises the stakes for CEO and founder Sam Altman to build on the lofty price tag for an eventual IPO.

The San Francisco-based company is now worth far more than any VC-backed company at the time of their IPO—including Meta, Uber, Rivian and Coinbase, according to an analysis of PitchBook data.

Thrive Capital led the financing and was joined by Microsoft, Nvidia, Altimeter Capital Management, Fidelity, Khosla Ventures, MGX, SoftBank and Tiger Global, according to reports. OpenAI, which did not specify its investors, did not respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI is now the third-most valuable VC-backed company in the world. Only Elon Musk’s SpaceX, valued at $180 billion, and TikTok owner ByteDance, valued at $220 billion, are worth more, PitchBook data shows.

Few startups have accumulated as much capital as OpenAI, whose AI models require immense capital expenditure. Foundation model specialist xAI, founded by Musk, raised more than $6 billion earlier this year—but on a valuation of $24 billion, which is a fraction of OpenAI’s.

Its closest competitor, Anthropic, was last valued in January at $19.35 billion, according to PitchBook data.

Data analyst Collin Anderson contributed to this article.

Featured image by Howard Kingsnorth/Getty Images

  • rosie-headshot.jpg
    Rosie Bradbury is a reporter covering startups and venture capital for PitchBook News. Based in New York, she previously reported for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Business Insider and Wired. Rosie studied history and politics at the University of Cambridge.
Join the more than 1.5 million industry professionals who get our daily newsletter!

I agree to PitchBook’s privacy policy