OpenAI’s Sam Altman is now looking at investors in the Middle East to help sustain the ChatGPT creator’s operations and capital expenditures.
People familiar with the matter say Altman has been in talks with top investors in the region in an effort to secure a $50 billion investment for OpenAI, Bloomberg reports.
The sources, who wish to remain anonymous as the information is not public, say Altman held meetings that included investors from leading state-backed funds in Abu Dhabi. A $50 billion investment would put OpenAI’s valuation between $750 billion and $830 billion.
The effort to raise more funds comes as OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar recently reported that the firm’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) has jumped to $20 billion in 2025 from just $2 billion in 2023. Despite the rapid rise in ARR, AI contrarian Gary Marcus has warned that OpenAI is running out of cash to burn as the firm continues to spend $3 billion a month, or about $36 billion a year. According to Marcus, OpenAI has about a year’s worth of runway left and would likely be absorbed by Microsoft if the firm failed to secure more investor funding.
In December, Altman said that he believes OpenAI can stay on a very steep revenue growth curve “for quite a while” to meet the AI giant’s $1.4 trillion in spending commitments. He also said OpenAI would be able to generate more revenue if constraints on compute availability are resolved.
“We cannot do it if we don’t have the compute. We’re so compute constrained, and it hits the revenue line so hard that I think if we get to a point where we have like a lot of compute sitting around that we can’t monetize on a profitable per unit of compute basis, it would be very reasonable to say, ‘Okay… how’s this all going to work?’”
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at CapitalAI Daily are not investment advice. Investors should do their own due diligence before making any decisions involving securities, cryptocurrencies, or digital assets. Your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. CapitalAI Daily does not recommend the buying or selling of any assets, nor is CapitalAI Daily an investment advisor. See our Editorial Standards and Terms of Use.