SAN FRANCISCO, May 17, 2026, 03:29 PDT
- U.S. stock markets remain closed Sunday. Regular Nasdaq trading picks up again Monday, setting the stage for the next move.
- OpenAI’s most recent reported funding round put the company’s valuation at $852 billion, after the latest cash was included.
- The latest reported funding terms for Anthropic would value a direct rival above that level.
OpenAI is starting the week as its private-market valuation faces new pressure. The Financial Times said Anthropic just set terms for a $30 billion round, valuing the company at $900 billion. OpenAI in March said it wrapped up a $122 billion round at an $852 billion post-money valuation, which includes the fresh capital.
U.S. equity markets are closed on Sunday, so Nasdaq’s normal trading window—Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern—won’t open until after the weekend. Investors have a full week of AI financing news to sort out before markets open again.
OpenAI doesn’t trade publicly. Its value comes from the private market, with big investors pricing it during funding rounds, not on a stock exchange. Listing shares would open that up to more investors.
OpenAI struck a new limit on payouts to Microsoft, moving to cap the revenue OpenAI shares at $38 billion, The Information said, as reported by Reuters. Revenue-sharing gives part of OpenAI’s sales to Microsoft, but the cap may give investors a better idea about OpenAI’s future cash.
OpenAI is taking steps to prove it can build real revenue from AI demand. The company said Monday it’s setting up the OpenAI Deployment Company with over $4 billion to start. OpenAI is also buying the AI consulting group Tomoro, which brings in about 150 engineers and deployment staff.
The company’s business effort goes after the same enterprise customers Anthropic is winning. Reuters said last month that Anthropic was considering a new funding round at over $900 billion—if that deal goes through, Anthropic could top OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI startup.
AI stocks are still drawing buyers. Cerebras Systems, which makes AI chips and counts OpenAI and Amazon among its customers, jumped 89% above its IPO price on Thursday. The offering brought in $5.55 billion and put Cerebras at a fully diluted value of $106.75 billion. Nicholas Smith, senior research analyst at Renaissance Capital, told Reuters the opening price put the valuation “quite high even out to 2028”. Reuters
SoftBank (9984.T) is seen as the most direct listed play on OpenAI’s valuation. The Japanese tech investor posted a net profit of 1.83 trillion yen ($11.6 billion) for January-March, helped by gains on its OpenAI stake. SoftBank said its total gains from the OpenAI investment come to $45 billion so far. Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said using OpenAI assets for financing with a margin loan was “certainly possible,” referring to a loan backed by those assets. Reuters
OpenAI is still undecided on an IPO. Reuters said in October the company was preparing for an initial public offering that might value it as high as $1 trillion. “An IPO is not our focus, so we could not possibly have set a date,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters at the time. Reuters
Public investors could demand more proof than OpenAI’s private backers wanted. The company is dealing with higher compute bills, more pressure from rivals like Anthropic and Alphabet’s Gemini, and legal questions from Elon Musk’s lawsuit on its for-profit move. Court filings showed CEO Sam Altman has over $2 billion in companies that have worked with OpenAI. Altman has rejected the self-dealing accusations and told the court he stepped away from decisions tied to those deals.
Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, told Reuters that two negative headlines about OpenAI could keep the company from hitting the high valuation it’s looking for in an upcoming IPO.
The next few days are likely to add new signs on legal and valuation fronts. The Musk trial could see closing testimony wrap up this week, according to Reuters, with the jury possibly starting deliberations by May 18. Investors will track if the Microsoft contract shift, SoftBank’s financing, or Anthropic’s fundraising shake up how public markets value OpenAI.
