OpenAi announced on Monday (31) that it will raise up to $ 40 billion in a new round of financing led by Softbank Group which evaluates the company by $ 300 billion. Resources will be used in artificial intelligence research, computational infrastructure expansion and tool improvement.
The Japanese technology investment group said it will finance OpenAi with $ 10 billion in mid -April and another $ 30 billion in December, depending on the company’s transition to a profitable company by the end of the year.
Softbank plans to distribute $ 10 billion of its total investment to other co-platers that have not been mentioned. A person familiar with the subject told Reuters that the rest of the financing will come from Microsoft, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital and Thrive Capital.
If OpenAi’s restructuring fails, Softbank said its total investment value in the round would fall to $ 20 billion.
OpenAi said it intends to provide increasingly powerful tools for 500 million weekly chatgpt users.
OpenAi closed a $ 6.6 billion financing round in October, which valued the company at $ 157 billion.
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“OpenAi has very ambitious plans on many fronts and needs a lot of capital to achieve these goals,” said Gil Luria, Davidson & Co. “The list of investors who want to support this scope has decreased and may be widely limited to softbank, which may not have the necessary capital.”
Softbank plans to finance the first $ 10 billion through loans from Mizuho Bank and other financial companies.
OpenAi is partnering with Softbank and Oracle to establish a data centers network within the US Stargate project, budgeted at $ 500 billion.
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“AI is a defining force that is shaping the future of humanity. Our expanded partnership with OpenAi accelerates our shared vision to unlock its full potential,” said Masayoshi Son, the executive president of Softbank Group.
With the latest financing, OpenAI will join the most valuable private companies such as Spacex, Bytedance and Stripe.
