OpenAI’s $852B valuation faces investor scrutiny

OpenAI’s staggering $852 billion valuation is drawing pointed questions from within its own investor base, according to a recent report. The scrutiny follows a period of significant strategic shifts as the company aggressively pursues the enterprise market. Some backers express unease over what they see as a lack of focus, especially with a potential public offering on the horizon for late 2026.

The core of the concern is a perceived strategic turbulence. In just six months, OpenAI has reportedly revised its product roadmap twice, first reacting to competition from Google and later from rival Anthropic. The company has also shelved several initiatives, including the broader rollout of its Sora video generator and a planned ‘adult’ chatbot. To certain investors, these rapid pivots risk leaving OpenAI vulnerable as it navigates a competitive landscape and prepares for an IPO.

Criticism from early supporters has been blunt. One told reporters, “You have ChatGPT, a 1 billion-user business growing 50-100 per cent a year, what are you doing talking about enterprise and code? It’s a deeply unfocused company.” Another observer, not invested in OpenAI, offered a stark historical analogy, labeling the firm “the Netscape of AI,” a reference to the once-dominant browser company later eclipsed by larger rivals.

The financial expectations are immense. One investor with stakes in both OpenAI and Anthropic suggested that to justify the latest funding round, they would need to project an eventual IPO valuation of $1.2 trillion or more.

OpenAI’s leadership forcefully rejects the narrative of wavering investor confidence. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar pointed to the company’s recent $122 billion fundraise, the largest private round in Silicon Valley history. Backed by a consortium including SoftBank, Amazon, and Nvidia, the oversubscribed round was completed in record time. “The suggestion that investors are not supportive of our strategy defies the facts,” Friar stated. She also highlighted that enterprise now accounts for 40% of total revenue and is projected to match the consumer business by the end of 2026.

The company is also emphasizing its infrastructure lead, targeting 30 gigawatts of computing capacity by 2030 and claiming to have already secured 8 gigawatts, a level it asserts Anthropic will not reach until late 2027.

Much of the current tension stems from the remarkable revenue trajectory of Anthropic. Fueled by demand for its coding tools, Anthropic’s annualized run rate reportedly skyrocketed from about $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $30 billion by March 2026. OpenAI reported a $25 billion annualized run rate in February. This apparent gap triggered a sharp response from OpenAI’s new chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser.

In an internal memo, Dresser accused Anthropic of overstating its run rate by roughly $8 billion. The claim centers on an accounting technicality. Anthropic books the full value of partner revenue from AWS and Google Cloud on a gross basis. OpenAI, in contrast, reports its share of Microsoft revenue on a net basis, after the partner’s cut. Both methods are acceptable under accounting rules, but the difference, if accurate, would place Anthropic’s comparable run rate closer to $22 billion.

Anthropic defended its accounting, stating it recognizes gross revenue because it acts as the principal in transactions with its cloud partners serving as a distribution channel.

Dresser’s memo conceded that Anthropic’s developer-focused “coding focus gave them an early wedge” in the enterprise sector. However, it argued that a narrow positioning could become a liability as AI adoption broadens. “You do not want to be a single-product company in a platform war,” the memo stated. It outlined OpenAI’s priorities: winning the enterprise model layer with a new model codenamed ‘Spud,’ establishing its Frontier agent platform, leveraging its Amazon partnership, and building a deployment engine called DeployCo.