OpenAI announced it has closed $40 billion in funding at a $300 billion post-money valuation. SoftBank is leading the funding round, and several other backers, such as Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive, are joining them.
This is believed to be the largest private tech funding round in history. It puts OpenAI in the category of the highest-valued private tech companies, along with Stripe, SpaceX (valued at $350 billion), and TikTok parent company ByteDance.
The funding will enable OpenAI to push the frontiers of AI research further, scale compute infrastructure, and deliver powerful tools for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT weekly.
A large portion of the funding will likely be used for Stargate, a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. These companies have committed to investing an initial $100 billion and up to $500 billion in the next four years in expanding AI into the U.S., including setting up data centers in Texas.
SoftBank said it agreed to fund OpenAI with $10 billion in the middle of April and $30 billion more in December, assuming OpenAI transitions to a for-profit company by the end of the year. If the restructuring does not happen by then, the total investment amount could drop to $20 billion.
In October, OpenAI raised $6.6 billion at a valuation of $157 billion, and the valuation has nearly doubled since then.
