OpenAI has closed a long-awaited funding round worth $ 157 billion, including $ 6.6 billion of which the company raised from the list of investment companies and large technology companies.
While OpenAI did not name the investors in a press release Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said the round was led by Thrive Capital and included participation from existing backers. Microsoft also a chipmaker NvidiaSoftBank and others. Thrive plans to invest $1 billion in the round, CNBC previously reported.
The rapid rise of OpenAI, which began with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, has been the biggest story in the tech industry in the past few years, bringing the concept of generative artificial intelligence into the mainstream and paving the way for tens of billions of dollars. investment in AI infrastructure.
“The new funding will allow us to increase our leadership in frontier AI research, increase our computing capacity, and continue to build tools that help people solve hard problems,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post Wednesday.
“We look forward to continuing our partnership with OpenAI,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.
OpenAI generated $300 million last month, up 1,700% since the beginning of last year, CNBC confirmed last week, following a report by The New York Times. The company expects sales of $11.6 billion next year, up from $3.7 billion in 2024, according to a person close to OpenAI who asked not to be named because the financials are confidential.
But all that revenue is very expensive, because OpenAI has to increase the purchase of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to train and run large language models. The company expects to lose about $5 billion this year, the person said. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and is a key partner as the software giant strengthens its Azure cloud business.
Earlier this year, OpenAI was valued at $80 billion, up from $29 billion in 2023. After the viral growth of ChatGPT, the momentum continues with new products for business and expansion into AI-generated photos and videos.
OpenAI currently has 250 million weekly active users on ChatGPT, CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC in a statement. There are also 11 million ChatGPT Plus subscribers and 1 million paying business users on ChatGPT, people close to the company said.
“AI is personalizing learning, accelerating healthcare breakthroughs, and driving productivity,” Friar said in the statement. “And this is just the beginning.”
OpenAI experienced a lot of pain along the way, including the loss of a key executive, a trend that continued until last week.
Last Wednesday, OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, who briefly served as interim CEO, said she was leaving after 6½ years. Shortly thereafter, chief research officer Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph, vice president of research, said they were leaving the company.
In an interview the next day at Italian Tech Week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “I hope this will be a good transition for everyone involved and I hope OpenAI will be stronger, because of all our transitions.”
Also on Thursday, OpenAI held an all-hands meeting, following a board decision to consider restructuring the company into a for-profit business, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Altman said his departure was unrelated to a potential restructuring, contrary to some media reports.
If the change happens, the nonprofit segment will remain a separate entity, the source said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Altman dismissed reports of plans for him to receive a “giant equity stake” in the company, calling the information “untrue,” according to people involved.
OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor told CNBC in a statement last week that while the board has talked about the matter, there are no specific figures on the table.
“The board has discussed whether it would be beneficial for the company and our mission to have Sam compensated with efforts, but no specific figures have been discussed or any decisions have been made,” Taylor said.
The latest funding round also includes participation from Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity, MGX and Tiger Global, sources told CNBC.
