The company announced on Wednesday that OpenAI has raised $6.6 billion from investors at a post-money valuation of $157 billion, strengthening the position of the ChatGPS maker. The world’s most valuable private companies,
The funding has attracted returning venture capital investors including Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures, as well as new participation from Microsoft and Nvidia, OpenAI’s biggest corporate backers.
The closing of the fund coincides with the company’s continuing existence Restructuring efforts And executive changeThat includes the sudden departure last week of its longtime chief technology officer, Mira Muratti.
Altimeter Capital, Fidelity, SoftBank, Abu Dhabi’s state-backed investment firm MGX also participated in the round.
The funding came in the form of convertible notes, and depends on a successful structural change for the for-profit to no longer be controlled by the nonprofit’s board and to remove caps on returns for investors.
The personnel changes haven’t dampened the enthusiasm of most investors, who are expecting significant growth based on projections from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and CFO Sarah Fryer.
The company is on pace to post $3.6 billion in revenue this year despite widening losses of more than $5 billion. According to sources familiar with the figures, revenue is expected to increase by a whopping $11.6 billion next year.
Investors have also secured some protection as OpenAI undergoes a complex corporate restructuring that Altman Equity will provide. Negotiations are still ongoing and no timeline has been set yet.
Sources said investors have negotiated terms that would allow them to withdraw their capital or renegotiate valuations if changes are not implemented within two years.
The tremendous growth of OpenAI in terms of product popularity and evaluation has attracted the world’s attention. Since ChatGPT’s launch, it has attracted 250 million weekly active users. The company’s valuation has also increased by $14 billion to $157 billion in 2021 as its revenue has increased from zero to $3.6 billion, far exceeding Altman’s own estimates at the time.
The company has told investors it is still actively working on artificial general intelligence (AGI), meaning developing AI systems superior to human intelligence, as it ramps up commercialization and tries to become profitable. Is.
