OpenAI IPO: Sam Altman discussing a new round of VC funding valuing the company at $1.2 trillion

Good morning. On Fortune’s radar today: OpenAI could delay IPO in favor of $1.2 trillion funding round. The new Fortune 500 Europe ranking is here ! Markets: Signs of life. The September Effect: Stocks always go down in this month. No one knows why. Expect a rate hike from the Fed today. The top 1,000 best cities, ranked. How much cash Paris Saint-Germain made in this year’s transfer market. 40% of your 9/11 memories are wrong . ➡️ Did someone forward this email to you? If you would like to receive this information directly, every morning before the markets open in New York, sign up here . Recommended Video IPO NO OpenAI considers pushing off IPO by taking new VC money at a $1.2 trillion valuation OpenAI is talking to investors about securing another round of funding that would value the company at $1.2 trillion, according to the FT . The round would stave off the need for Sam Altman’s company to stage an IPO this year. Altman recently told Fortune’s Alyson Shontell that “Given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don’t feel pressure on that.” OpenAI raised $122 billion in March, at a valuation of $852 billion. ONE BIG THING The new Fortune 500 Europe ranking is out The combined revenues of the companies on the 2026 Fortune 500 Europe list hit a record high of $15.5 trillion this year, equivalent to half of Europe’s GDP. The list, now in its fourth year, ranks the continent’s largest companies by revenue. Despite fiercer global competition, geopolitical instability, and technological disruption over the past year, the companies on the list have proven resilient. Profits returned to growth this year, rising 3% to just over $1 trillion, after a 5% decline in 2025. Volkswagen holds the top spot for a third consecutive year. Its revenue climbed 3.4%, to more than $363 billion, despite Europe’s carmakers being squeezed by global tariffs and growing competition from China. See the ranking here . Read Sam Birchall’s analysis here . MORE FROM FORTUNE Karin Rådström is steering Daimler Truck in a new direction as the world’s biggest truckmaker faces a growing challenge from China - Sam Forsdick ‘The end of the keyboard is near’: Christian Klein predicts voice translation will be the next workplace advantage - Kamal Ahmed Billionaires are flocking to these 3 Florida localities—here’s how much they save in taxes - Sydney Lake Agility is the most important skill in the AI age, says Capgemini CEO - Kamal Ahmed ‘People just do not want the world to change so much’: The war over the future of work being fought by Gen Z - Nick Lichtenberg Millennials are winning the AI talent wars—they’re getting 60% of all the top AI jobs and earning $236K salaries. But most of them are men. - Orianna Rosa Royle America has lost 200 malls since 2008. Now the survivors are becoming Gen Z hangouts - Tatiana Sataua I’m a female founder with a liberal arts degree and my company has raised $280 million. You don’t need a PhD to build a robotics startup - Oana Jinga Gen Z is the most online generation, but this Christmas, they want gifts to get them outside - Mia Osmonbekov THE MARKETS With the misery priced in, things are finally looking up The S&P 500 has lost 2% over the last month and was down 0.45% yesterday, mostly because there is no end in sight for the Iran war and because the bond market is losing faith in the U.S.'s ability to handle its debt. But with a Fed rate hike now fully priced in, traders are buying again today. Markets in Europe and Asia were up across the board, and U.S. futures looked poised for gains, too, before the open in New York. S&P 500 futures were up 0.18 % this morning. The index lost 0.45 % yesterday. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was up 0.16 % in early trading and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.31 % before lunch. Asia: South Korea’s KOSPI was up 1.37 %. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.69 %. India’s Nifty 50 was up 0.49 %. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.68 %. Brent crude was $107 per barrel this morning. Bitcoin was at $ 75,546. It is September, so the stock market is down You may have noticed that the market is down. Why? Because it is September. Stocks hate September, as this chart shows. “Regardless of the time horizon examined—the last 100 years, 50 years, 20 years, 10 years or even just the last five years—September has consistently been the weakest month of the year for markets,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said in an email. “Midterm years appear to be even weaker than average. There is no obvious explanation for this pattern, with lots of spurious ones. Perhaps it has become partly self-fulfilling, but the consistency of the trend makes it difficult to dismiss.” NUMBER GO UP The Fed is locked in. Probably. The usually reliable CME FedWatch futures index shows a 92% probability that the Fed will raise interest rates by 25 basis points today. As this chart from Ohsung Kwon and his colleagues at Wells Fargo shows, a “Fed hike looks like a done deal” because the Fed has always raised rates if the FedWatch is above 69% on this question: The Fed has only bad options, but a hike is the ‘lesser of two evils’ “The U.S. central bank faces a dilemma. Both policy options are mistakes, but which is the lesser evil?” asks UBS’s Paul Donovan in a pithy note this morning. “Raising rates has no effect on inflation (mainly oil). But the gesture hurts indebted consumers and companies, undermining their ability to manage future economic shocks. Unchanged rates, when Federal Reserve Chair Warsh has not guided market expectations, raise the specter of the ‘sock puppet’ and a loss of credibility. Alongside U.S. Treasury Secretary ‘House’ Bessent, whose credibility has floundered, that is a high risk. On balance, a rate hike is probably the lesser of the two evils, even if unwarranted.” CHART OF THE DAY Start spreading the news: New York tops global city ranking Oxford Economics’ latest global city ranking —which rates the world’s 1,000 largest cities on economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance—has New York as its No.1 pick. “New York’s dominance is anchored by an unmatched concentration of talent, top-tier universities, and high-paying global industries,” said Liam Sides, the lead author of the report. “The city’s high wages, diverse job market, and legendary cultural draw continue to attract top global talent and business investment, cementing its competitive edge.” NUMBER OF THE DAY €207 million ($239 million) Paris Saint-Germain F.C. made the most profit from selling players in the transfer market this year—the highest of any major club worldwide, according to Sportingpedia . Chelsea F.C. made €192 million ($222 million). The biggest losses were made by Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal (€287 million or $331 million), Tottenham Hotspur F.C. (€257 million or $297 million) and Liverpool F.C. (€254 million or $293 million). THE FRONT PAGES TODAY US billionaires line up to bankroll Republicans’ election push - FT Canada could become ‘first associate member’ of EU, bloc’s chief says - CNBC House GOP's Epstein files headache is back - Axios Elon Musk Trains His Political Chaos Machine on the U.K. - WSJ Russia’s Richest Woman Sees Fortune Shrink After Drone Strikes - Bloomberg Trump Defended A.I. Data Centers on Truth Social, and Commenters Clapped Back - NYT Meet Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s handpicked super-woke globalists he thinks will save us from an AI apocalypse - NY Post ONE MORE THING 40% of your 9/11 memories are wrong, study shows A study of how people’s memories of the attack on the World Trade Center change over time by Elizabeth A. Phelps of Harvard University and William Hirst of The New School shows that after only a year, 40% of the details people recalled did not match what they reported immediately after the attacks. They followed up with the same people after one year, three years, 10 years, and 25 years later. Despite demonstrably high levels of inconsistency, “people were extremely confident their memories were correct,” Phelps and Hirst wrote. “For example, after a year, one person reported he was on the train when he heard of the attacks; initially he said he was at work. Another person initially described being with her husband; a year later she remembered being with her son.” “Interestingly, these erroneous memories became stable over time. What most people reported after one year – even if the memory was in error – remained their memory when we assessed it later,” they said. Would you like to sponsor this newsletter? Contact Polly Raven ( polly.raven@fortune.com ) for details.