OpenAI investors have approached the company about a new funding round

watch now

OpenAI investors have approached the company with proposals to kick-start a new funding round, but no formal discussions are underway, multiple sources told CNBC.

Investors have floated a $1.2 trillion valuation to OpenAI, and some have positioned the potential new funding round as a way for employees to sell stock, according to the people, who asked not to be named in order to discuss nonpublic information.

OpenAI, which raised $122 billion at a $852 billion valuation in March, is not currently engaged in conversations, the people said. Following the round, OpenAI completed a secondary share sale totaling roughly $7 billion in August, allowing employees to cash in a portion of their holdings.

"We still have an incredible balance sheet," OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC's Jim Cramer in an interview on Tuesday.

The Financial Times was first to report the potential round. OpenAI declined to comment.

• Two camps have emerged in the debate over AI safety and regulation
• AWS says it can't restore service to Bahrain, UAE facilities 6 months after Iran strikes
• Musk urges top AI labs, Chinese companies to test each other's models amid calls for slowdown
• Will AI really destroy humanity? Pioneers who created the tech weigh in

OpenAI burst onto the mainstream in 2022 following the launch of its artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, and it's ballooned into one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

The startup is gearing up for what is widely expected to be a blockbuster initial public offering next year, after it confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June.

Friar told employees during an all-hands meeting last month that OpenAI "will be a public company in 2027," but that it could make its public market debut sooner if "our business continues to inflect."

In an interview with Fortune on Saturday, Altman said that now would be an "ill-advised" moment to go public, in part because of the widespread concerns about safety.