According to the NYT, OpenAI has closed $8.3 billion in new funding, pushing the company's valuation to $300 billion and marking a new milestone in the AI boom.
This round is part of a broader push to raise a total of $40 billion in venture capital over the course of 2025. Originally, OpenAI planned to complete this stage later in the year, but the process moved faster than expected. The New York Times reports the round was five times oversubscribed, with earlier investors accepting smaller stakes so OpenAI could prioritize new strategic backers.
Dragoneer Investment Group led the round with a $2.8 billion investment—one of the largest single checks ever written by a venture fund. Dragoneer is known for backing Airbnb, Spotify, and Uber.
Other major new investors include Blackstone, TPG, T. Rowe Price, and venture firms like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Tiger Global. Blackstone and TPG are considered key partners because of their potential to deploy ChatGPT across their portfolio companies in industries like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.
The raise comes as OpenAI is negotiating with Microsoft about restructuring the company as a for-profit entity, a move that requires Microsoft's approval as the main investor. The move could set the stage for an IPO at some point in the future.
Fast revenue growth, rising costs
The New York Times reports that OpenAI's annual recurring revenue jumped from $10 billion to $13 billion between June and July, with projections pointing to $20 billion by year-end. The Information previously reported that annual revenue doubled to roughly $12 billion in the first half of 2025. The company now brings in about $1 billion per month. Weekly active ChatGPT users have climbed to 700 million, up from 500 million in March.
But rapid growth comes at a cost. OpenAI's burn rate for 2025 is now at $8 billion—$1 billion higher than forecast at the beginning of the year. Much of that is going toward infrastructure, including the massive computing power needed to scale its AI models.
Meanwhile, rival Anthropic is also seeing strong gains. The company is said to have recently hit an annualized revenue run rate of $4 billion and is targeting a $170 billion valuation.
