OpenAI has completed a deal to raise US$6.6 billion ($8.53 billion) in new funding, giving the artificial intelligence (AI) company a US$157 billion valuation and bolstering its efforts to build the world’s leading generative AI technology.
The funding round was led by Thrive Capital, the venture capital firm headed up by Josh Kushner, which put in US$1.3 billion. Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest backer, put in about US$750 million, on top of the US$13 billion it had already invested in the start-up, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Other investors included Khosla Ventures, Fidelity Management & Research and Nvidia, the chipmaker whose powerful processors are at the center of the AI boom. Microsoft declined to comment.
The deal is one of the largest-ever private investments, and makes OpenAI one of the three largest venture-backed start-ups, alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok owner ByteDance. The size of the investment underscores the tech industry’s belief in the power of AI and its appetite for the extremely costly research powering its advancement.
Other investors writing major checks included Tiger Global Management, which put in US$350 million, and Altimeter Capital, which invested at least US$250 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Global backers participating in the round included SoftBank Group and the new Abu Dhabi-based tech investment firm MGX. SoftBank’s investment was US$500 million, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Venture firm Coatue also participated.
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In a statement, the company said it would use the cash influx to drive forward AI research and increase its computing capacity. “AI is already personalising learning, accelerating healthcare breakthroughs and driving productivity,” OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said. “And this is just the start.”
The huge valuation for OpenAI has transfixed Silicon Valley.
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“People are shocked at 150 billion bucks,” said Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner, speaking on stage at the Madrona IA Summit in Seattle on Wednesday. But he also cited reports that the start-up expects to generate more than US$10 billion in revenue next year – adding that a multiple of 10 times projected revenue isn’t exorbitant for a company about to go public, giving Google and Facebook as comparable examples.
The latest deal values OpenAI at more than US$150 billion pre-money, before including the dollars raised in this round.
Gerstner also said he hoped OpenAI would soon go public, and that it was the logical next step for the start-up, which he called “the most important AI company in the United States, next to Nvidia”.
Apple didn’t participate in the deal, although the company was previously in talks to invest, Bloomberg has reported. The iPhone-maker has a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT on its devices and through its Siri voice assistant. As part of that accord, Apple was previously in discussions to get a board observer role on OpenAI’s board, although those plans were dropped, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Some of the funding round was invested through so-called special purpose vehicles, where backers can pool money from a wider array of investors to buy a portion of the shares. For example, in addition to contributing its own capital, Thrive put together an SPV to invest in the company, one person said. OpenAI declined to comment on the SPVs.
The financing deal follows a turbulent year for OpenAI. Last November, the company’s board fired and then quickly rehired CEO Sam Altman. In the following months, the company has remade its board, hired hundreds of new employees, and lost several key leaders, including co-founder Ilya Sutskever and chief technology officer Mira Murati.
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At the same time, OpenAI is discussing moving from its non-profit structure — an unusual organisation that has frustrated investors — to a for-profit model. The move would appease the company’s backers, but could pose legal hurdles. As part of a transition, OpenAI has discussed awarding Altman equity in the company — a stake that could be worth more than US$10 billion, though OpenAI’s board said it hasn’t discussed specific numbers.
OpenAI kicked off a Silicon Valley obsession with the potential of AI when it debuted its chatbot, ChatGPT, in 2022. The tool can generate human-sounding responses to questions, and has amassed 250 million weekly active users, the company said. Its paid service, ChatGPT Plus, has 11 million subscribers, one person said. And its business-focused service has more than 1 million users, as Bloomberg has previously reported.
A slate of new companies have sprung up to compete with OpenAI in recent years, including several that have been founded by former OpenAI employees — such as Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence. OpenAI is also facing intense competition from larger tech companies with vast resources, including Google and Amazon.com, which are also developing their own AI models.
In this funding round, OpenAI discouraged investors from backing rival companies, such as Anthropic or Musk’s AI start-up xAI, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bloomberg earlier reported that leading venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, which backed Safe Superintelligence, would not participate in the newest fundraising.
Photos: Bloomberg
