OpenAI received a huge private investment from the Japanese SoftBank

Artificial intelligence has become the central axis of global technology markets this year and has fueled a sharp increase in investment by the world’s largest companies and changed investor expectations.

Japanese conglomerate and producerđač ChatGPT did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In March, SoftBank agreed to invest up to $40 billion in the for-profit subsidiary of OpenAI, and the financing is structured as a combination of direct capital and split joint investment from other investors.

That deal valued OpenAI at about $300 billion after the payment, but a subsequent secondary share sale, completed in October, raised the company’s valuation to about $500 billion, according to Pitchbook data.

SoftBank sent the last $22-22.5 billion investment after agreeing with other investors to participate with $10 billion, while the Japanese group itself invested $8 billion in OpenAI, the source said.

CNBC first reported the news earlier in the day.

OpenAI has emerged as a central pillar of the rise in AI investment across the industry.

Productionđač ChatGPT, together with Oracle and other stakeholders, planned a project called “Stargate”, a large-scale, multi-year data center initiative aimed at supporting next-generation artificial intelligence models, with the support of major investors, including SoftBank.