OpenAI has raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion post-money valuation, according to a statement the company posted online Wednesday. The funding round was led by Thrive Capital, which invested $1.25 billion, and included Microsoft (roughly $1 billion), SoftBank ($500 million), and Nvidia ($100 million) according to the Wall Street Journal. OpenAI was previously valued at $86 billion in February when employees were allowed to sell shares.
The public statement from OpenAI about the new funding round was relatively short at just three paragraphs, but it’s interesting to see what the company was highlighting in that brief announcement. The statement starts by stressing its goal was to ensure AI benefits all of humanity, the kind of declaration that recalls an old Twitter joke about getting a lot of questions already answered by your shirt.
“We are making progress on our mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity,” the company said. “Every week, over 250 million people around the world use ChatGPT to enhance their work, creativity, and learning. Across industries, businesses are improving productivity and operations, and developers are leveraging our platform to create a new generation of applications. And we’re only getting started.”
But then the statement gets into the news about the valuation and lots of buzzwords about accelerating progress, increasing compute, and building tools.
“We’ve raised $6.6B in new funding at a $157B post-money valuation to accelerate progress on our mission. The new funding will allow us to double down on our leadership in frontier AI research, increase compute capacity, and continue building tools that help people solve hard problems,” reads the OpenAI statement.
The last paragraph is arguably the most interesting, if only because the wording makes it clear OpenAI isn’t just interested in working with the U.S. government, but other allied governments around the world. USAID became the first federal agency to sign a contract with OpenAI to use ChatGPT Enterprise and the Pentagon is reportedly working with the company on cybersecurity tools.
“We aim to make advanced intelligence a widely accessible resource. We’re grateful to our investors for their trust in us, and we look forward to working with our partners, developers, and the broader community to shape an AI-powered ecosystem and future that benefits everyone. By collaborating with key partners, including the U.S. and allied governments, we can unlock this technology’s full potential,” the OpenAI statement concludes.
Again, this new statement is brief when compared to a typical press release. But it could provide some clues about what the company has in store for the near future. Obviously, the folks at the Pentagon want to have the latest and greatest AI tools at their disposal, but that mention of “allied governments” certainly suggests the company is eager to work with U.S. allies as well, perhaps in the near future.
Who else invested in this latest funding round? According to the Financial Times, investors include Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Tiger Global, Altimeter Capital, and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. But the FT notes some of those investments are through special purpose vehicles.
The FT also reports that OpenAI asked investors not to back Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, founded in March 2023. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but was reportedly pushed out when he wanted to run the entire thing. Musk and Altman have been fighting ever since.
The latest news about OpenAI’s funding comes after a particularly tumultuous time for the AI venture, with CTO Mira Murati announcing her departure last week on the same day Reuters reported the company was looking to restructure from a non-profit model to a for-profit corporation. And it wasn’t that long ago that CEO Sam Altman was abruptly axed by the board, only to be brought back less than a week later after pressure from OpenAI employees and Microsoft. Even elected representatives like Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York expressed their support of Altman.
Why would Sen. Schumer care about who the CEO of OpenAI might be? Well, that probably brings us back to OpenAI’s statement about wanting to work more with the U.S. government. And Altman may have learned a thing or two from his friend-turned-enemy Elon Musk, a billionaire who’s benefited tremendously from billions in government contracts at SpaceX and massive subsidies at Tesla. There’s a lot of money to be made from Uncle Sam.
Trending Products
