OpenAI raises another 40 billion dollars in a new funding round.
OpenAI is now valued at 300 billion dollars.
OpenAI has secured a total of $40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank, raising the company's valuation to $300 billion. This event marks the largest fundraising for a private tech company in history.
Of this total, OpenAI will receive $10 billion immediately, with SoftBank contributing $7.5 billion and the remaining $2.5 billion coming from a syndicate of investors. The rest of the funding, amounting to $30 billion, is expected to be delivered by the end of the year, although this is dependent on the company officially becoming a for-profit entity. If this conversion does not happen, it could lose a quarter of the deal.
This investment comes just a few months after OpenAI announced Stargate, an ambitious joint project aimed at establishing massive artificial intelligence data centers, backed by SoftBank, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi's MGX fund, with a total investment of $500 billion over the next four years. The company has been making rapid advancements; recently, its CEO, Sam Altman, reported that OpenAI added one million users in just one hour, largely due to the popularity of a new ChatGPT feature that allows users to create artwork inspired by Studio Ghibli. Additionally, Altman announced that in the coming months, the company will launch a powerful new language model with reasoning capabilities.
Despite the explosive growth the startup has experienced due to ChatGPT, it still faces significant economic challenges as it is consuming large sums of money. According to recent reports, OpenAI expects to generate $12.7 billion in revenue this year, a considerable increase from the previous year’s $3.7 billion in recurring revenue. However, it is estimated that the company will not reach positive cash flow until 2029, when it anticipates impressive revenue of about $125 billion.
The statement regarding the funding emphasized OpenAI's commitment to developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. Altman has made it clear that achieving these goals will require not only technology but also energy, global infrastructure, and, of course, an astonishing amount of capital. According to the startup, this round of investment brings them one step closer to fulfilling their mission.