Momentum surges! OpenAI plans new funding round at $100 billion valuation
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Momentum surges! OpenAI plans new funding round at $100 billion valuation
If this round of financing proceeds as planned, OpenAI will become the second most valuable startup in the United States.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsText: South China Morning Post
Translation: MetaverseHub
OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, is in early discussions over a new funding round that would value the company at $100 billion or more, according to people familiar with the matter.
Potential investors have been brought into preliminary talks, said the people, who requested anonymity due to the private nature of the discussions. Terms including valuation and timing for the fundraising round have not yet been finalized and could still change.
Data from CB Insights shows that if completed as planned, this funding round would make OpenAI the second-most valuable startup in the United States, behind only Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Earlier reports from Bloomberg indicated that OpenAI will complete a separate tender offer early next month, allowing employees to sell shares at an $86 billion valuation. The tender offer, led by Thrive Capital, has seen investor demand exceed supply, according to sources.
OpenAI's rapidly rising valuation reflects the artificial intelligence boom sparked by its launch last year of ChatGPT, a chatbot capable of generating “human-like” text and even poetry from simple prompts.
OpenAI has become one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups, having raised over $13 billion from Microsoft to date. It has reshaped perceptions about AI’s potential and transformed the technology industry landscape within months.
Since then, Amazon and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, have invested billions of dollars into Anthropic, a competitor of OpenAI.
Salesforce led a funding round in Hugging Face valued at $4.5 billion. Nvidia, the semiconductor company designed specifically for AI tasks, said earlier this month it made more than 20 investments in 2023 alone.
According to sources, OpenAI has also held fundraising discussions with G42, an Abu Dhabi-based company in the United Arab Emirates, regarding a new chip initiative.
In addition, the sources said OpenAI has discussed plans to raise between $8 billion and $10 billion from G42. The person requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the information.
It remains unclear whether OpenAI’s semiconductor venture is connected to the company’s broader fundraising efforts.
Bloomberg reported last month that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been seeking funding for a chip-making project codenamed "Tigris," aimed at developing semiconductors competitive with Nvidia, which currently dominates the AI chip market.
In October, G42 announced a partnership with OpenAI focused on “delivering cutting-edge AI solutions for the UAE and regional markets,” though financial details were not disclosed.
Founded in 2018, G42 is led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE national security advisor and chairman of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
At the beginning of November, OpenAI’s board abruptly fired Altman, creating uncertainty about the company’s future and prompting some investors to consider reducing their stakes to zero.
However, after five days of leadership turmoil, Altman was reinstated and a new board was appointed.
This move aims to signal to customers that despite recent upheaval, OpenAI is refocusing on its products.
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