OpenAI raised $40 billion from investors in its latest funding round, the ChatGPT maker announced Monday.
The deal, which values the artificial intelligence (AI) company at $300 billion, was led by Japanese company SoftBank. It plans to contribute $30 billion, while the remaining $10 billion will come from a syndicate of other investors.
“We’re excited to be working in partnership with SoftBank Group — few companies understand how to scale transformative technology like they do,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post.
“Their support will help us continue building AI systems that drive scientific discovery, enable personalized education, enhance human creativity, and pave the way toward AGI that benefits all of humanity,” it added.
The massive funding round comes at a crucial inflection point for OpenAI, as it seeks to transition to a for-profit model.
The deal is partly tied to this transition. SoftBank could cut its investment by $10 billion if OpenAI fails to restructure by the end of 2025, according to CNBC.
The AI firm, which began as a nonprofit, has argued that it needs to change in order to successfully compete with other tech companies that are investing billions of dollars into AI development.
The for-profit shift has been a key point of contention with Elon Musk, who helped found OpenAI in 2015. He launched his own AI company, xAI, in 2023.
Musk has repeatedly sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman over their for-profit plans throughout the past year. In March, a federal judge rejected Musk’s request to block the restructuring but said she was prepared to expedite a trial to the fall of 2025.
The tech billionaire also launched an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit arm in February, which he promised to withdraw if the company agreed to halt its for-profit transition.
OpenAI rejected the bid, dismissing it as Musk’s “latest attempt to disrupt his competition.”
