OpenAI raises $6.6bn in funding, is valued at $157bn

OpenAI has raised $6.6bn (£5bn) in a funding round that values the artificial intelligence business at $157bn, with chipmaker Nvidia and Japanese group SoftBank among its investors.

The San Francisco-based startup, responsible for the ChatGPT chatbot, did not give details of a reported restructuring that will transform it into a for-profit business. The funding round was led by Thrive Capital, a US venture capital fund, and other backers include MGX, an Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm.

OpenAI’s post-fundraising valuation puts it on a par with Uber, although it remains far below the $3tn level of its biggest backer of recent years, Microsoft, which also joined the fundraising.

Other investors included Nvidia, a dominant player in the market for the chips that train and operate AI models, and Softbank, which counts the UK chip designer Arm among its investments.

Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s chief financial officer, highlighted ChatGPT’s popularity, with more than 250 million weekly active users.

“Every week, over 250 million people turn to ChatGPT regardless of the scale of the challenge – whether it’s communicating with someone who speaks another language or solving the toughest research problems. AI is already personalising learning, accelerating healthcare breakthroughs, and driving productivity. And this is just the start,” she said.

OpenAI, which is reportedly heading for a loss of $5bn this year, said the fundraising would allow it to “double down” on cutting-edge AI research and increase its “compute capacity” – one of the main cost factors in building and operating powerful AI models.

The startup did not give an update on a mooted corporate restructuring that could mean it sheds its non-profit status and become a fully for-profit entity. OpenAI is run by a non-profit board but has a for-profit subsidiary, in which Microsoft is the biggest backer, with returns to investors and employees capped. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, could also receive a stake in the restructured company, according to reports.

Last week, a former OpenAI employee, William Saunders, said he was concerned that the restructuring could encourage the AI startup to cut corners on safety.

OpenAI’s charter commits the company to building artificial general intelligence – which it describes as “systems that are generally smarter than humans” – that benefits “all of humanity”.