OpenAI said on Monday it would raise $40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank Group at a $300 billion valuation to advance AI research, expand computational infrastructure and enhance its tools.
SoftBank would provide 75% of the funding, according to a person familiar with the matter, with the remainder coming from Microsoft, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital and Thrive Capital.
OpenAI said it looks to deliver increasingly powerful tools for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week.
Investor enthusiasm for the artificial intelligence sector has surged significantly in recent years, driven by widespread adoption of chatbots and the emergence of sophisticated AI agents.
Enterprises have integrated AI solutions to streamline their operations and enhance customer experiences, while venture capital firms compete to back promising AI startups.
San Francisco-based OpenAI had closed a $6.6 billion funding round in October, which valued the company at $157 billion. The new funding round would nearly double the valuation of the AI startup.
"OpenAI has very ambitious plans on many fronts and needs a lot of capital to achieve these goals," D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Gil Luria said.
"The list of investors wanting to support that scope has shrunk and may be largely limited to SoftBank, which itself may not have the necessary capital."
OpenAI is partnering with SoftBank and Oracle to establish a network of data centers under the $500-billion Stargate project, aimed at powering artificial intelligence workloads in the United States.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI also plans to revamp its structure, saying it would create a public benefit corporation to attract more investment and resources while balancing shareholder interests with public benefits.
OpenAI must transition to a for-profit company by the end of the year to secure the full $40 billion funding led by SoftBank, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
With the latest funding, OpenAI will join the ranks of the most valuable private companies, such as SpaceX, China's ByteDance and Stripe. - Reuters
