OpenAI, which has not yet gone public, raises $3 billion from retail investors in massive $122 billion fundraising

OpenAI has closed a deal to raise $122 billion at a valuation of $852 billion, its largest funding round to date as the company is expected to hit the public markets this year.

The round will add to OpenAI’s war chest as it spends massive amounts of money on AI chips, building data centers and hiring top talent.

SoftBank co-led the round along with Andreessen Horowitz, DE Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG, and T.J. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft.

About $3 billion came from individual investors through banking channels. OpenAI will also be listed on several ETFs managed by ARK Invest, giving more people access to the company’s private shares to expand the shareholder base ahead of the upcoming IPO.

OpenAI also said it has expanded its revolving credit facility to about $4.7 billion, with support from several of the largest global banks. The company said the facility remains undrawn, suggesting it is enhancing its financial flexibility while increasing computing and infrastructure spending, rather than responding to near-term liquidity needs.

The company’s press release reads less like a typical blog post than a draft S-1; It’s heavy on flywheel metaphors, looks at revenue per unit of account, and offers the kind of TAM justification language that institutional investors salivate over.

OpenAI included updates on revenue and user numbers, claiming it generates $2 billion in revenue per month and taking aim at competitors: “At this point, we are growing revenue four times faster than the companies that defined the internet and mobile era, including Alphabet and Meta.”

The company also said it has more than 900 million weekly active consumer AI users and more than 50 million subscribers, with search usage nearly tripling in the past year. OpenAI said its beta advertising program generates more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue in less than six weeks, opening a potential revenue stream for the company that has built its user base without ads.

The AI ​​giant claims the momentum is being reflected on the commercial side, which now makes up 40% of its revenue (up from about 30% last year) and is “on track to reach consumer parity by the end of 2026.” The company said its growth across proxy workflows is driven by the latest GPT-5.4 model.

Finally, OpenAI also calls itself a “super AI app,” making it clear that it wants to own the core interface to how people use AI.

It all amounts to one message: OpenAI is building its narrative for the public market in real time, and this round is as much about stabilizing IPO expectations as it is about the capital itself.