OpenAI closed the first tranche of a new funding round on November 6, 2026, securing $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, roughly 37% of the originally targeted $30 billion at a $1.4–1.5 trillion valuation. CFO Sarah Friar confirmed the valuation, representing an approximate 46.7% step-up from the March round that raised $122 billion at $852 billion, though the comparison basis differs. The round included SoftBank and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, with potential follow-on capital of up to $9 billion to reach a $20 billion total, though terms and lead investors were undisclosed. Friar claimed 70% quarter-over-quarter growth in Q3, a doubling of the enterprise business, a 50/50 consumer-enterprise revenue split, 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users, and a $1 billion ads run rate by August, without disclosing absolute revenue figures. The reduced valuation impacts Microsoft and NVIDIA differently: Microsoft’s GAAP earnings benefited from $207 million in OpenAI stake gains in the September quarter, but future gains diminish with slower valuation growth, while its 48% Azure growth remains the primary driver. NVIDIA, down 21.4% over one month, faces greater exposure as OpenAI’s existing and planned commitments represent ~12 GW of compute demand, and management noted frontier labs are growing faster than balance sheets can support. Key tests include whether OpenAI’s round reaches $20 billion and NVIDIA’s November 17 earnings meeting its $108 billion Q3 revenue guidance.