OpenAI lowered its target valuation for its shares from $1.4 trillion to $1.25 trillion, a drop of about $150 billion, in an indication of growing investor skepticism about the AI boom and its potential profits.
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The reduction in the target valuation for OpenAI, which owns the ChatGBT platform, comes amid a recent sell-off of US technology stocks, driven by growing concerns about the massive debt these companies rely on to finance the expansion of their activities, such as building data centers .
According to documents seen by the Financial Times, Morgan Stanley offered shares of OpenAI to the bank’s high-net-worth clients, with a market value previously estimated at $1.4 trillion, but demand from them was weak, leading to a reduction in the target valuation.
The prefer to wait and see how Anthropic is valued in its expected initial public offering in the coming months, before committing to investing in shares of its rival, OpenAI.
OpenAI is seeking to raise $30 billion in necessary funding ahead of its initial public offering, with a source close to the company telling the newspaper that the offering is likely to take place in the first half of 2027.
The need for funding despite the concerns
In this context, Jamie Chang, chief investment officer at Rockefeller Global Family Office, which has investments in OpenAI and Anthropic, said that the uncertainty surrounding the initial public offerings of the two companies is casting a shadow over the US stock market as a whole.
Zhang added: "The market needs to see a successful IPO; these companies need funding."
Concerns have been mounting over safety and security measures at leading AI companies, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, recently, and the companies' directors, Sam Altman and Dario Amode, have acknowledged the need to slow the pace of AI development.
David Robinson, the head of safety and security reporting at OpenAI , announced his formal resignation from his position this October, with sharp public warnings that the organizational culture within the company leading the artificial intelligence revolution had become "dysfunctional".
Weeks earlier, researcher Jacob Cookson had resigned from rival company Anthropic , warning that the current pace of artificial intelligence growth could pose existential risks to humanity by the end of the decade.
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