OpenAI has raised its valuation to $300 billion with a new $40 billion round led by SoftBank. According to CNBC, the round is the largest ever for a private technology company.
OpenAI is raising another $40 billion
OpenAI will receive $10 billion of the investment immediately. SoftBank will invest $7.5 billion, while the remaining $2.5 billion will be provided by a consortium of investors. According to CNBC, the remaining $30 billion in funding is planned to be transferred by the end of the year. However, for this to happen, the company must officially become a for-profit entity. Otherwise, OpenAI could lose a quarter of the deal.
This investment comes after OpenAI announced its Stargate initiative in recent months. The company plans to build massive $500 billion artificial intelligence data centers over the next four years with the support of SoftBank, Oracle and Abu Dhabi fund MGX.
As OpenAI continues to grow at a rapid pace, CEO Sam Altman announced on Monday that the company gained 1 million new users in just one hour. It is stated that the virality of the new “Images” feature added to ChatGPT, which can produce visuals in the style of Studio Ghibli, was effective in this growth. Altman also announced on Wednesday that the company will release a more powerful open-oriented language model in the coming months.
OpenAI announced that ChatGPT currently serves 500 million users per week. However, it is known that the company continues to spend a lot of cash despite its rapid growth. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI expects to earn $12.7 billion in revenue this year.
This is a big increase compared to its annual revenue of $3.7 billion last year, and it is estimated that the company will reach a cash flow positive position in 2029. By 2029, OpenAI’s revenue is expected to reach $125 billion.
