OpenAI has grown a lot since its inception and has received many investments. But despite these investments and the revenues from its members, reports have emerged that the company is in advanced talks with investors to raise a substantial sum of $6.5 billion.
What stands out is the figure added to its valuation – a staggering $150 billion. According to Bloomberg, this figure is significantly higher than the $86 billion valuation last reported earlier this year. OpenAI continues to gain investor interest as it uses the money right.
Key players in the funding race
While the numbers are huge, the list of interested parties is equally impressive. Thrive Capital, a longtime supporter of OpenAI, is reportedly leading this round of funding. They are not the only ones lining up, though. Industry giants such as Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia – key partners of OpenAI – are also reportedly considering investing. Their continued involvement reflects their interest in the company’s growth. In particular, Microsoft has partnered closely with OpenAI to integrate AI technology into products such as Azure and Office 365, while Apple and Nvidia are also increasingly engaged with the company.
In addition to the hefty sum of $6.5 billion, OpenAI is also in talks to borrow $5 billion from various banks, Bloomberg reported. This shows how much the company needs financing to expand its operations and influence in the tech sector, and that it will do so without investors.
How did OpenAI get here so fast?
Just last month, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Thrive Capital was preparing to lead an investment round that could raise as much as $1 billion for OpenAI. At the time, OpenAI was said to be valued at around $100 billion, but as these recent discussions show, the company’s value seems to have increased faster than expected.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 by prominent figures in the tech world, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, and Wojciech Zaremba. The company was founded to make artificial intelligence safe and useful for humanity. OpenAI, which initially started as a nonprofit, switched to a for-profit model in 2019 and began receiving investments to provide more resources.
Since its inception, OpenAI has received various investments and, thanks to these investments, has achieved great success. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, which started an important partnership. This partnership has allowed OpenAI to run on Azure and achieve broad scalability. In addition, OpenAI has developed and launched revolutionary language models such as GPT-3 and GPT-4. However, the company’s success has also brought some controversy. In particular, it has been criticized for ethical issues and the potential misuse of its language models.
Despite this, OpenAI has been able to maintain its leadership position in AI through ever-increasing investment support and innovative approaches. OpenAI, which will play a major role in shaping the future of AI, continues to attract attention as one of the most influential players in the industry.
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