OpenAI, the company behind the popular generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT, has raised an additional $6.6 billion in new funding, which gives the tech giant a $157 billion valuation.
Reuters reports that Thrive Capital led this funding round with a $1.3 billion investment. Thrive also negotiated the option to invest an additional $1 billion next year if the ChatGPT maker meets certain revenue goals. OpenAI also received a further $750 million from Microsoft, their largest corporate backer. This brings their total investment in the start-up close to $14 billion.
There are several other investors, among them chipmakers Nvidia. Nvidia’s investment in AI is huge and increasing. This week the company launched its own AI model which they describe as “rivaling the leading proprietary models (e.g. ChatGPT4)”. They also announced an enterprise partnership with professional services firm Accenture to bring AI to more companies.
On the other side of the $6.6bn coin, Apple, who were reportedly in talks to invest in OpenAI, elected not to invest at this time. They have not given a reason for this but there is some speculation that structural changes at OpenAI cast doubt on the venture.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, discusses investing in OpenAI.
Read more about the OpenAI funding round that raised $6.6 billion: https://t.co/H9qhd2OjBi pic.twitter.com/lSVQorBtxm
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Since its inception in 2015, OpenAI has been a non-profit controlled by a board. However, they announced in late September 2024 their intentions to restructure its core business into a for-profit corporation, in a move that has been criticized by entrepreneur Elon Musk. The company maintains that “the nonprofit is core to our mission and will continue to exist” in some form.
Three top executives at OpenAI announced their departures from the company on Thursday, September 26. Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, who had been at the firm for over six years described it as a “difficult decision”. Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and VP of Research Barret Zoph also elected to leave the company.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stated that the departures were not co-ordinated, saying “Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently of each other and amicably, but the timing of Mira’s decision was such that it made sense to now do this all at once so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership.”
Featured image credit: generated with Ideogram
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