OpenAI Valuation: $852 Billion, and Why the Next Price Is Lower Than Hoped

Short answer: the latest confirmed OpenAI valuation is $852 billion. That price was set when OpenAI raised $122 billion in March 2026¹. OpenAI is now trying to raise about $20 billion more at a $1.25 trillion price. That target was cut from $1.4 trillion, and the amount was cut from $30 billion, as investors pulled back². You cannot buy OpenAI stock today. It filed for an IPO in secret in June 2026³. Its finance chief says the listing will come in 2027⁴. The simplest way to own a piece now is Microsoft stock. Microsoft owns about 24% of OpenAI⁵.

That is the whole story in one paragraph. The rest of this guide explains each number in plain English. You will see how the price was built and who owns the company. You will also get the math on what OpenAI is worth inside one Microsoft share.

What "OpenAI valuation" actually means

A valuation is what the whole company is worth, in dollars. For a public company, the stock market sets it every second. For a private company like OpenAI, it works differently.

OpenAI's price is set in a funding round. That is a deal where the company sells new shares to a small group of big investors. They agree on a price per share. Multiply that price by all the shares, and you get the valuation.

Two terms you will see a lot:

• Post-money valuation: what the company is worth right after the new cash comes in. The $852 billion figure is post-money¹.
• Pre-money valuation: what it was worth right before the new cash. Reports describe the new $1.25 trillion target this way².

So the OpenAI valuation is not a live price. It is the last price a few large buyers agreed to pay. Think of it like a house. The house's value is what the last buyer paid. Until someone buys it again, nobody knows the exact number.

Every round that built the OpenAI valuation

OpenAI started in 2015 as a nonprofit lab. The price tag only became huge after ChatGPT launched in late 2022. Here are the milestones with a confirmed source.

Date	What happened	Money raised	Valuation
Oct 2024	Funding round	$6.6 billion	$157 billion6
Mar 2025	Round led by SoftBank	$40 billion	$300 billion7
Oct 2025	Employees sell shares to investors	about $6.6 billion	$500 billion8
Mar 2026	Largest private round ever	$122 billion	$852 billion1
Aug 2026	OpenAI buys back employee shares	about $7 billion	$852 billion9
Oct–Nov 2026	New round in talks (not closed)	about $20 billion sought	$1.25 trillion proposed2

In about two years, the price went from $157 billion to $852 billion. That is about 5.4 times higher.

Look closely at the last two rows. In August, employees could sell shares in a tender offer. That is a deal where the company or investors buy shares from staff. The price stayed flat at $852 billion⁹. Then the next round shrank before it closed. Investors had until late October to commit. Some scaled back, according to the Financial Times².

That is a warning sign worth noticing. The OpenAI valuation is still rising on paper. But the rise is slowing, and buyers are getting pickier.

Who owns OpenAI

OpenAI changed its legal shape in October 2025. The business became OpenAI Group PBC¹⁰. A PBC (public benefit corporation) is a normal for-profit company that must also weigh a stated mission, not just profit. A nonprofit, the OpenAI Foundation, still controls it. The Foundation appoints the whole board¹¹.

When that change closed, the owners looked like this¹¹:

• OpenAI Foundation: 26%, plus a warrant for more shares if the stock rises more than tenfold over 15 years. A warrant is a right to get extra shares later.
• Microsoft: about 27%, worth about $135 billion at the time¹⁰.
• Employees and other investors: the remaining 47%.

Those numbers have since moved. New shares were sold in March 2026, so each old owner's slice got smaller. This is called dilution: more slices of the same pie.

The newest hard numbers come from filings:

• Microsoft now owns "an approximate 24% interest" in OpenAI. That is from its quarterly SEC filing for the period ended September 30, 2026⁵.
• SoftBank finished paying its $30 billion share of the March round on October 1, 2026. Its total investment is $64.6 billion, for about a 13% stake, according to Reuters¹².
• Amazon put in $50 billion and Nvidia $30 billion in the March round, per Bloomberg. $35 billion of Amazon's money only arrives if OpenAI goes public or reaches "artificial general intelligence"¹³.
• Individuals added more than $3 billion to the March round through bank wealth channels¹. These were wealthy clients, not everyday investors.

The key takeaway: no normal retail investor is on this list.

Worked example: what each owner's slice is worth

Here is the math nobody else shows. Take each owner's stake and multiply it by the OpenAI valuation. The answer tells you what each big owner holds in dollars. We use two prices: the confirmed $852 billion and the proposed $1.25 trillion.

Owner	Stake	Worth at $852B	Worth at $1.25T
Microsoft	~24%5	~$204 billion	~$300 billion
SoftBank	~13%12	~$111 billion	~$163 billion

Our math: stake × valuation, rounded. The $1.25 trillion is a reported pre-money target, not a closed deal.

SoftBank check. SoftBank paid $64.6 billion in total¹². At $852 billion, its slice is worth about $111 billion. That is a paper gain of about $46 billion. "Paper" means it only becomes real cash if SoftBank sells.

Microsoft check, per share. Microsoft had 7,426,194,552 shares outstanding on October 22, 2026⁵. Divide the stake value by the share count:

• At $852 billion: $204 billion ÷ 7.43 billion shares ≈ $27.50 of OpenAI inside each Microsoft share.
• At $1.25 trillion: $300 billion ÷ 7.43 billion ≈ $40.40 per share.

Compare that to Microsoft's share price on our Microsoft stock page. You will see OpenAI is a real slice of each share, but a small one. Most of what you pay for is Azure, Office and Windows.

One more fact from the same filing surprised us. In the quarter to September 30, 2026, Microsoft booked $10.0 billion of revenue from OpenAI. That includes revenue-sharing payments⁵. So Microsoft earns money from OpenAI as a customer, not just as an owner. Microsoft has committed $13.0 billion to the investment itself, and has paid in $12.0 billion so far⁵.

Why investors pay so much: the revenue

Any OpenAI valuation needs revenue to back it up. OpenAI reports annualized revenue, also called run-rate. That means one recent month's sales, times 12. It shows how big the business is right now, not over a full year.

Here is the trail:

• March 2026: about $2 billion a month, or about $24 billion a year¹.
• End of September 2026: about $50 billion a year, OpenAI told investors¹⁴.
• Growth in the third quarter: 77% for the whole run-rate, and 107% for business customers¹⁴.
• Year-end goal: $70 billion or more, Bloomberg reported¹⁵.

There was confusion here. In late September, news outlets reported a figure near $68 billion. OpenAI later told investors the figure was about $50 billion. A source told CNBC the bigger number had counted gross revenue from partners¹⁴. The news hit AI stocks. Oracle fell nearly 6% and Nvidia 3% that day¹⁴.

Now let's test the OpenAI valuation with simple math. A price-to-sales ratio tells you how many dollars investors pay for each $1 of yearly sales.

Scenario	Valuation	Yearly sales	Price-to-sales
Today, confirmed price	$852B	$50B	~17×
New round, today's sales	$1.25T	$50B	~25×
New round, if the year-end goal is hit	$1.25T	$70B	~18×

Our math, using the figures above.

What does 17 times sales mean? You pay $17 today for each $1 OpenAI sells in a year. Big, mature software companies usually sell for far less than that. So OpenAI is priced like a company that will keep growing very fast for years. If growth slows, that multiple has a long way to fall.

Sales are also not profit. OpenAI spends huge sums on computer chips and data centers. Its finance chief has pointed to the $122 billion raise as giving the company "flexibility"⁴. That is a polite way of saying the company burns a lot of cash.

Can you buy OpenAI stock?

No, not directly. OpenAI has no stock ticker. It is not on the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange.

Is there an OpenAI IPO? An IPO (initial public offering) is the day a private company first sells shares to the public. Here is where it stands:

• June 8, 2026: OpenAI said it had "submitted a confidential S-1"³. An S-1 is the sales document a company files with the SEC before an IPO. "Confidential" means the public can't read it yet.
• OpenAI said the timing "may be a while." Some goals are "likely easier as a private company"³.
• August 2026: finance chief Sarah Friar told staff OpenAI "will be a public company in 2027." It could come sooner if the business keeps speeding up⁴.

So the realistic answer is 2027. Until then, here are your options.

1. Microsoft stock (MSFT). The cleanest choice. Microsoft owns about 24% of OpenAI⁵. It also earns billions from selling OpenAI computing power. The catch: OpenAI is a small part of a huge company, as our per-share math showed.

2. SoftBank stock. SoftBank owns about 13%¹². It trades in Tokyo, and US investors can buy it through some brokers. The catch: SoftBank borrowed heavily to make this bet. It raised $11.1 billion in a bond sale in September 2026 to help pay for it¹². That adds risk.

3. Amazon or Nvidia stock. Both invested in the March round¹³. But OpenAI is a tiny part of either company. This is a weak way to bet on OpenAI.

4. Private share marketplaces. Sites such as Forge and EquityZen sometimes match buyers with ex-employees who want to sell. These usually require you to be an accredited investor: someone with high income or net worth, as defined by US rules. Minimums are often tens of thousands of dollars. One tracker that uses these trades put an implied price of about $1.1 trillion on OpenAI on November 2, 2026¹⁶. Treat that as a rough signal, not a fact.

5. Wait for the IPO. You will be able to buy on day one with a normal brokerage account. But first-day prices can swing wildly. The private price does not guarantee the public one.

Beware of anyone selling "OpenAI pre-IPO shares" through social media ads or cold calls. With no public stock, scams fill the gap.

Is the OpenAI valuation fair? Our verdict

Our view: $852 billion is a bet on growth, not a value price. For most retail investors, the right move is to wait for the S-1 numbers.

Here is why, in three points.

1. The price is already rich. At about 17 times sales, investors are paying for many years of fast growth up front. Value investors like Warren Buffett want a margin of safety. That means buying below what a business is worth, to protect against mistakes. Read our margin of safety guide for how that works. There is no margin of safety at 17 times sales for a company that has not shown a profit.

2. Demand is cooling at the top. The proposed OpenAI valuation for the new round fell from $1.4 trillion to $1.25 trillion. The amount fell from $30 billion to about $20 billion². When the biggest investors pull back, retail buyers should ask why.

3. Competition is real. OpenAI's quarterly revenue fell behind Anthropic's in the second quarter of 2026, Axios reported. It was $6.7 billion against $11.6 billion¹⁷. Our Anthropic valuation guide walks through that rival's numbers. A leader that is no longer clearly leading deserves a lower price, not a higher one.

None of this means OpenAI will fail. ChatGPT is one of the fastest-growing products ever. But a great company can still be a bad investment at the wrong price. Want AI exposure today? A profitable business like Microsoft, bought at a fair price, is the more patient path.

What to watch next

• Whether the new round closes, and at what price. A close at $1.25 trillion would mean big buyers still believe. A lower price would be a clear signal the other way².
• The public S-1. When OpenAI moves toward listing, the S-1 becomes public. For the first time you would see audited revenue, losses and costs.
• Microsoft's next 10-Q. Each quarter it updates its stake and the revenue it earns from OpenAI⁵.
• Secondary-market prices. Trades between ex-employees and buyers hint at where the OpenAI valuation is heading, before any official round¹⁶.
• The year-end revenue number. Did OpenAI hit $70 billion a year¹⁵? A miss would make the 2027 IPO harder to price.

Questions

What is OpenAI's valuation in 2026?

$852 billion. That price comes from its $122 billion funding round in March 2026¹. A new round at $1.25 trillion is in talks but has not closed².

Can I buy OpenAI stock?

Not directly. OpenAI is private and has no ticker. The closest public option is Microsoft (MSFT), which owns about 24%⁵.

When is the OpenAI IPO?

No date is set. OpenAI filed in secret in June 2026³. Its finance chief told staff it will be public in 2027⁴.

How much of OpenAI does Microsoft own?

About 24%, according to Microsoft's filing for the quarter ended September 30, 2026⁵. It was about 27% right after the October 2025 restructuring, before new shares diluted it¹⁰.

Is OpenAI profitable?

Not that anyone can see. OpenAI does not publish full financial statements yet. It spends heavily on chips and data centers. Watch for real profit figures in the public S-1.

Is OpenAI worth more than Anthropic?

On confirmed private prices, no. Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May 2026¹⁸. OpenAI's last confirmed price is $852 billion¹. See our Anthropic valuation guide for the full breakdown.

Related reading

New to valuing companies? Start with how to value a stock for beginners. Then read the DCF valuation guide and what is a good P/E ratio. For other big private companies, see SpaceX latest valuation and how to buy Waymo stock. For AI stocks you can buy today, see is Nvidia overvalued.