OpenAI announced that it has raised $6.6 billion in a new round of financing, with the company's valuation reaching $157 billion.
“The new funding will enable us to double down on our leadership in cutting-edge AI research, increase computing power, and continue to build tools that help people solve difficult problems.
Our goal is to make advanced intelligence a widely accessible resource. We thank our investors for their trust in us and look forward to working with our partners, developers, and the broader community to build an AI ecosystem and future that benefits everyone.”
The New York Times reported that Thrive invested about $1.3 billion and had an exclusive option to invest up to $1 billion more at the same valuation (by 2025). Thrive was also a major investor in OpenAI's previous rounds of funding.
In addition, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity and MGX also participated in the financing. According to the Wall Street Journal , Microsoft's investment is slightly less than $1 billion, while Nvidia has pledged to invest $100 million and SoftBank has invested $500 million.
Currently, ChatGPT has more than 250 million users worldwide, of which about 10 million are paying users. It is reported that OpenAI's annual revenue has exceeded US$3.4 billion. The New York Times quoted OpenAI's internal documents as saying that ChatGPT alone will bring in US$2.7 billion in revenue this year. OpenAI optimistically predicts that its revenue will reach US$100 billion by 2029.