OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, officially closed its largest funding round in the tech sector's history on March 31, 2026: $122 billion in committed capital, valuing the company at $852 billion post-money. This operation eclipses all previous rounds, including OpenAI's own previous series ($6.6 billion in October 2024 at a $157 billion valuation). In five months, the company's valuation has more than quintupled. (
The funding round is dominated by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which invested $110 billion – the vast majority of the total. The remainder comes from Amazon (investment estimated in the billions via a cloud deal), Nvidia, and, for the first time, wealthy individual investors allowed to participate. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) co-led the round alongside SoftBank. Microsoft, a historic shareholder of OpenAI, did not participate in this specific round. (
These funds are intended to finance the race for artificial general intelligence (AGI). OpenAI plans to invest heavily in specialized chips (GPUs and TPUs), data centers, and the recruitment of researchers. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stated that the company is becoming the "fundamental infrastructure of AI," enabling "people and businesses worldwide to simply build." (
This funding comes as OpenAI actively prepares for an initial public offering (IPO) scheduled for the second half of 2026. The company has completed its transformation from a non-profit structure to a traditional for-profit enterprise. OpenAI's annualized revenue reportedly reached $12.7 billion by early 2026, up over 150% year-over-year, but the company remains unprofitable, with estimated operating losses of $5 billion in 2025. (
Competition is intensifying. Google DeepMind, Anthropic (valued at $60 billion), and China's DeepSeek are challenging OpenAI's dominance. Morgan Stanley warned in a recent report that a "transformative leap" in AI could occur as early as the first half of 2026 and that "most of the world is not ready." Global AI infrastructure investments (capex) are expected to exceed $300 billion in 2026. (
The $852 billion valuation places OpenAI among the top ten most valuable companies globally, ahead of giants like Samsung, TSMC, and Berkshire Hathaway. If the IPO confirms this level, OpenAI would join the ranks of potential "trillion-dollar" companies alongside Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Alphabet. For observers, this mega-round illustrates both the insatiable market appetite for AI and questions about the sustainability of growth financed by debt and hope. (
