OpenAI raises $122 billion to 'build the very infrastructure of artificial intelligence'

OpenAI has just closed a massive new funding round of 122 billion dollars. This new funding round raises the valuation of the startup, one of the titans of artificial intelligence, to 852 billion dollars. The company behind ChatGPT is thus approaching the stock valuation of other technology giants, without ever going public.

This funding round was led by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, alongside investment funds such as Andreessen Horowitz and D. E. Shaw Ventures, which are heavily involved in the technology world. Among the major investors participating in the funding round, Amazon is noted, having committed $50 billion, Nvidia ($30 billion), and Microsoft. The amount invested by Microsoft was not disclosed. During previous fundraising rounds, the Redmond-based company had already contributed over $1.3 billion. OpenAI explains that it has also collected $3 billion from private investors.

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Chips and data centers

Sam Altman's company indicates that the money raised will allow building « the infrastructure layer of intelligence itself ». On its blog, the company mentions investments aimed at increasing computational power, particularly through chips and data centers. The billions of dollars injected will also be used to train even more advanced AI models and to develop new products. For OpenAI, the value generated by its products, with ChatGPT at the forefront, will eventually, in the long term, benefit the economy, businesses, communities, and individuals.

« The more computing power we have, the smarter our models become, and the more they can be useful in everyday life and at work », says OpenAI.

The fundraising comes a few days after OpenAI's significant strategic reversal. The startup has indeed decided to refocus on software development and professional uses, mainly to respond to Claude from Anthropic. In the wake of this strategic shift, OpenAI has preferred to end several costly but not profitable initiatives, such as the social network Sora. As part of this restructuring, OpenAI will hire thousands of people to expand its teams. All signs point to OpenAI cleaning up and organizing its affairs in preparation for a potential stock market listing. Note that OpenAI already generates $2 billion in monthly revenue, thanks to « over 900 million active users each week », but is not yet profitable.

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Source : OpenAI