Investors poured nearly 7 billion USD into OpenAI

On October 2, OpenAI announced the completion of another round of capital raising. Accordingly, investors poured 6.6 billion USD into this, valuing OpenAI at 157 billion USD. They are currently one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

The funding round attracted many prominent names, such as Microsoft and Nvidia. Among them, Microsoft is the strongest supporter of OpenAI to date.

Venture capital funds such as Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity, SoftBank and Abu Dhabi’s national investment company MGX also participated. Thrive Capital also committed to pouring an additional $1 billion in the next half year if OpenAI reaches its revenue target. Apple previously planned to invest in OpenAI, but later withdrew, according to WSJ.

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar also told employees that the company will have a mechanism to buy back their shares after the funding round. However, the timing and other details have not been disclosed, the source said Reuters said. Earlier this year, the company allowed some employees to sell stock when the company was valued at $86 billion.

OpenAI is on track to hit $3.6 billion in revenue this year, with losses of more than $5 billion. The company forecasts revenue next year to reach 11.6 billion USD, sources said Reuters said.

The capital call took place at the right time when this company was restructuring and changing leadership. The company said it is still pursuing artificial general intelligence (AGI), aiming to develop systems that surpass human intelligence. They will commercialize and strive to achieve profits.

OpenAI’s reputation and valuation increased rapidly in the last two years, following the launch of ChatGPT. Currently, this chatbot has 250 million regular users every week. OpenAI’s valuation increased from $14 billion in 2021 to $157 billion currently. Revenue also increased from 0 to 3.6 billion USD, far exceeding leaders’ initial expectations.