Business
February 19, 2026
The OpenAI funding round, still in its early phase, is expected to bring in commitments from a handful of backers. This includes Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank. According to recent reports, Amazon alone may invest up to $50 billion. Meanwhile, Softbank and Nvidia are discussing as much as $30 billion and $20 billion, respectively. These deals are expected to come through during the course of this year.
The OpenAI valuation tied to this deal is record-breaking. Several sources revealed that the firm’s pre-money valuation sits around $730 billion. The final valuation is said to exceed $850 billion once the round closes. That figure would place OpenAI in a territory that only a few private companies have reached.
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How the OpenAI Funding Round and Rising Valuation Impact AI Investment
What makes this funding round different is where the money is going. This is not primarily allocated to hiring more engineers or even expanding apps. Majority of the funding will be set aside to support massive AI infrastructure investment. This includes data centers, chip procurement, and energy capacity. Sam Altman’s latest funding effort appears designed to lock in those resources early, before shortages tighten more.
AI infrastructure has quickly emerged as one of the most expensive bets in modern tech. The International Energy Agency estimates that global data center electricity consumption could more than double by 2030. This is largely expected to be driven by AI workloads.
The scale of this AI infrastructure investment is already influencing the broader market. NVIDIA’s rapid growth, for example, has been tied directly to demand from AI developers like OpenAI. The chipmaker even reported record revenue in 2024.
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Meanwhile, Microsoft is equally strategic. Its Azure cloud platform hosts OpenAI’s models and delivers them to enterprise customers through different products. Additionally, Amazon’s expected participation is tied in part to expanding OpenAI’s use of its cloud services and custom AI chips.
The scale of OpenAI’s latest funding round reflects this reality. Investors are backing developments that could aid the next generation of AI services, platfroms and enterprise tools. OpenAI’s rising valuation shows how markets are beginning to treat AI not simply as a product category, but as foundational technology.
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