The company leading the AI arms race may be about to become even more valuable.
The round is led by venture firm Thrive Capital, which will invest $1 billion, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the deal. It’s not clear what other firms or investors are participating in the deal.
OpenAI has skyrocketed into one of the most valuable startups in the world since the launch of its buzzy chatbot, ChatGPT, in November 2022. After completing a tender offer in February 2023, it was valued at about $86 billion and has received some $13 billion in total investments from Microsoft and billions more in outside investment.
Investors have rushed to back the company on the success of ChatGPT — which has amassed hundreds of millions of monthly users.
OpenAI has two arms: the original nonprofit, which launched in 2015, and the for-profit subsidiary, which it launched in 2019 to fund its capital-intensive mission of creating artificial general intelligence. Investors are entitled to a share of the profits from the for-profit arm, according to the Journal.
The sky-high valuation comes despite a tumultuous year for OpenAI.
Last November, CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted by the company after its board ruled that he was not “consistently candid” in communications with them.
Then, this May, news surfaced that the company was forcing its employees to sign restrictive NDAs or risk losing vested equity.
Then came a squabble with actor Scarlett Johansson, who claimed the company used her voice to promote its product without permission.
Perhaps most damning, however, has been the departure of some of its most high-profile researchers in recent months. In May, its chief scientist and cofounder, Ilya Sutskever, announced he was leaving. His colleagues, Jan Leike and John Schulman also jumped to rival Anthropic. And researchers Daniel Kokotajlo and William Saunders also departed earlier this year.
Many of the departures were in part due to concerns that Altman is prioritizing aggressive product development — and perhaps eventual profits — over the safety of the technology, which some believe could go off the rails and endanger humanity if not pursued carefully.
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