OpenAI is closing the first slice of a funding round that will exceed $100 billion—the largest single private raise on record. That figure alone dwarfs the combined production budgets for every Marvel film now in development and still leaves enough cash for a pair of Fast & Furious sequels. And this is only phase one; venture firms and sovereign-wealth funds are already jockeying for position in a rumored second tranche that could push the total even higher.
The $100B First Tranche: Who’s Writing the Checks
This round looks nothing like the typical hoodie-and-oat-milk negotiations on Sand Hill Road. Instead, Big Tech royalty is cutting oversized checks: Amazon is reportedly contributing up to $50 billion—the largest single corporate investment in history—while SoftBank, NVIDIA, and Microsoft will split the remainder. The four companies expect to finalize allocations before the end of the month, a pace that makes Apple’s famously tight product-security cycle feel leisurely.
These are strategic investors, not purely financial ones. Amazon wants conversational commerce for Alexa, Microsoft needs ammunition for Copilot, NVIDIA requires GPU workloads that justify its trillion-dollar market value, and SoftBank rarely meets a moonshot it won’t fund. Because each backer can plug OpenAI’s models directly into existing products, they’re willing to pay a record price for speed rather than endure the usual drip-feed of Series F, G, and pre-IPO rounds.
Valuation Gymnastics: From $730B to $850B and Counting
OpenAI’s pre-money valuation is set at $730 billion. Once the $100-plus billion lands, the post-money figure will vault past $850 billion—about $20 billion above internal projections from early February. Investors are effectively handing the company a $120+ billion premium simply to secure a seat at the cap table; that gap alone exceeds Disney’s entire market capitalization.
The markup stems from scarcity and momentum. Anthropic is effectively spoken for by Amazon and Google; Stability AI is navigating internal upheaval; Elon Musk’s xAI is still ramping. OpenAI is the last large-scale independent model provider, and every corporate LP wants an allocation before the next valuation leap. Insiders say phase two could add “substantially” more capital—sovereign-wealth funds from Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Norway are already positioning—pushing the startup toward trillion-dollar territory.
Wall Street’s reaction is split. At 65× rumored annualized revenue, the multiple is stratospheric even by tech standards. Bulls cite 100 percent year-over-year growth; bears point to hyperscaler subsidies, looming regulation, and open-source competition. Both sides agree on one point: narrative can outrun spreadsheets when pop-culture adoption hits hyperspeed.
The Valuation Moonshot: How OpenAI Just Outran Disney, Netflix and Spotify—Combined
Post-money, OpenAI is valued north of $850 billion, eclipsing the combined market caps of Disney ($212B), Netflix ($270B), and Spotify ($43B) with room left over for a handful of Beverly Hills zip codes. The extra $20 billion surfaced in weeks as strategists priced in a monopoly premium: if Alexa, Copilot, Hopper GPUs, and SoftBank’s portfolio all standardize on OpenAI, the startup becomes the “Intel Inside” moment for generative AI.
Equity analysts estimate every 1 percent of global enterprise-software spend that OpenAI can capture equals roughly $7 billion in annual recurring revenue. Under that lens, an $850 billion valuation edges toward the realm of plausibility.
| Company | Market Cap (Feb 2025) | AI Revenue Exposure |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $850B (post-money) | 100 % |
| Microsoft | $3.1T | ~18 % (Copilot + Azure AI) |
| NVIDIA | $1.8T | ~60 % (data-center GPUs) |
| Amazon | $1.7T | ~8 % (Alexa + AWS Bedrock) |
OpenAI offers the only pure-play exposure at scale; no wonder strategics are tripping over their term sheets.
Phase Two Rumblings: Why Sovereign Funds Are Fighting for the Waiting List
Phase one is the velvet-rope section; phase two is the after-party no fund wants to admit it needs. Canadian pension boards, Middle-Eastern sovereign wallets, and marquee VCs are lobbying for spots in a follow-on tranche that could push the raise “substantially higher.” Mubadala and Temasek have reportedly bid more than $5 billion each and are willing to accept common shares just to gain entry.
OpenAI isn’t cash-starved. Sam Altman concedes the burn rate is “eye-watering,” but the first $100 billion covers a 7-nanometer fab line plus a cluster of AI supercomputers. Phase two is geopolitical insurance: EU AI Act compliance costs are rising, U.S. export controls are tightening, and data-center sites may sit in desert kingdoms instead of Santa Clara. Friendly sovereign capital brings diplomatic cover—worth more than money when regulators from Brussels to Riyadh start calling.
Expect phase two to price at a modest step-up but include bespoke governance: board observers, local-language model requirements, even regional ethics councils. For VCs accustomed to dictating terms, it’s a reminder that in 2025 capital is abundant; compute clusters and regulatory goodwill are not.
Hollywood’s AI Panic Button: Why Writers Rooms Just Got Even More Nervous
While investors toast record term sheets, Hollywood guilds are rewriting contract language. The Writers Guild’s latest strike-authority vote passed with 97 % approval; their demand is a per-script surcharge of 2 % of production budget on any studio using generative-AI storyboarding, character generation, or dialogue polish.
Studios argue OpenAI licensing already adds 6–8 percent to VFX costs and another guild fee could sink small-budget streamers. Showrunners now flaunt “AI-free” credentials in trade-press interviews, positioning themselves as premium storytellers while algorithms improve by the week.
Meanwhile, talent agencies are quietly building AI divisions. CAA’s AI Story Lab reportedly generated a fully synthetic sitcom pilot—script, storyboard, and a deepfake Tom Hanks cameo—in 72 hours for under $200K. If the guilds concede, fall 2026 could see seasons green-lit without a single WGA-covered writer. The tech that once terrified creatives is becoming the leverage studios need to call their bluff.
Bottom line: OpenAI’s $100 billion raise isn’t just a tech headline; it’s the earthquake that will reshape every screen, ad, and job spec linked to AI. The aftershocks haven’t even started.