OpenAI Near $10 Billion Fresh Fundraise — Total Funding to Exceed $120 Billion as Company Eyes IPO and Doubles Workforce to 8,000

OpenAI is in advanced discussions to raise approximately $10 billion in a new funding round that would bring the company’s total cumulative fundraising to more than $120 billion, according to reporting by Bloomberg and the Financial Times citing official statements and people with knowledge of the discussions. The new round follows the company’s $40 billion raise completed in early 2026. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has separately confirmed the company is planning to nearly double its workforce from its current level to approximately 8,000 employees by the end of 2026, according to a report in the Financial Times. The hiring push is focused on product engineering, research, enterprise sales, and what the company is calling ‘technical ambassadorship’ — a role designed to help enterprise customers implement and expand their use of OpenAI products. The company is also expanding its physical office space to accommodate the growth. OpenAI is simultaneously undergoing an internal restructuring that moves the CEO closer to infrastructure and financing decisions — a signal, analysts note, that in 2026 the competitive edge in frontier AI is as much about securing compute, power, and capital as it is about research capability. David Sacks, the U.S. government’s designated AI and crypto policy czar, separately announced on March 26 that his advisory role to the Trump administration on AI policy has ended. OpenAI’s Stargate infrastructure programme — a $500 billion joint venture with SoftBank and Oracle — has eight data centres under construction in Abilene, Texas, with the final building set for completion by end of 2026. OpenAI is simultaneously working on expanding its enterprise product packaging, with CFO-level executives at major corporations already planning workforce adjustments premised on AI automating administrative and knowledge-work tasks.