OpenAI Raises $40 Bln In SoftBank-led Funding Round At $300 Bln Post Valuation

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(RTTNews) - OpenAI announced that it has raised around $40 billion in the latest funding round led by Japan's SoftBank, valuing the ChatGPT maker at around $300 billion.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman stated that the investment helps the firm push the frontier and make AI more useful in everyday life.

The latest round reportedly comprises $30 billion from SoftBank and $10 billion from a syndicate of investors including core investor Microsoft, and turns to be the most ever raised by a private tech firm.

In a blog post, OpenAI said the new funding enables them "to push the frontiers of AI research even further, scale compute infrastructure, and deliver increasingly powerful tools for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week."

The San Francisco-based company added that its partnership with SoftBank Group will help it to continue building AI systems that drive scientific discovery, enable personalized education, enhance human creativity, and pave the way toward AGI that benefits all of humanity.

As per reports, the latest financing would be provided in two parts of $10 billion initially, followed by investment of $30 billion by the end of 2025. From the funding, about $18 billion will be used for OpenAI's commitment to Stargate, the joint venture formed with SoftBank and Oracle, and announced by President Donald Trump in January. Stargate intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.

The significant valuation, which comes amid the company's efforts to move to a conventional for-profit company from a non-profit structure, places it in the league of highly valued private companies including SpaceX and TikTok parent ByteDance.

Meanwhile, SoftBank reportedly has the option to reduce its total contribution to $20 billion, if OpenAI's conversion to 'for-profit' company is not being completed by the end of this year.

OpenAI in October last year had raised $6.6 billion, at a valuation of $157 billion.

OpenAI's ChatGPT now has 500 million weekly users, higher than last month's 400 million, and the company expects revenue will triple to $12.7 billion by the end of 2025.