OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly met with leading investors in the Middle East as he eyes $50 billion in funding.
During a recent visit to the region, Altman engaged with some of the top state-backed funds from Abu Dhabi, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday. The round is likely to be closed during the first quarter of 2026.
OpenAI’s Revenue Surges Amid Cash Burn
The development comes on the heels of OpenAI’s annualized revenue surging past $20 billion in 2025, marking a 233% rise from that of 2024. “We firmly believe that more compute in these periods would have led to faster customer adoption and monetization,” said CFO Sarah Friar in a blog post earlier this month.
The company stated that compute grew 9.5X between 2023 and 2025, while revenue growth during the same period was 10X. According to reports, the company is likely burning over $17 billion annually and subscription revenue may be inadequate to cover the compute-intensive operations.
Sam Altman Plans $100 Billion Fundraiser, Tests Ads
Notably, the December report suggests that OpenAI was planning to raise $100 billion at a valuation of $830 billion to support compute expansion. This comes after SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBY) (OTC:SFTBF) finalized its $40 billion funding in the ChatGPT maker.
Amid fundraising, ChatGPT, earlier this month, revealed that it is set to test advertisements in its ChatGPT free and Go tiers. However, CEO Sam Altman ensured that money would not be taken to influence the answers and the conversations would remain private from advertisers.
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