OpenAI just raised $6.6 billion to build ever-larger AI models

OpenAI conscionable closed a historical backing round, taking successful a $6.6 cardinal concern astatine a $157 cardinal valuation, to proceed pursuing its ngo to physique artificial-general quality according to a institution blog post.

The backing circular was led by Thrive Capital, which committed $1 billion, according to the Financial Times. It was besides reported that Thrive got a peculiar woody (not offered to different investors) that allows it to put different $1 cardinal adjacent twelvemonth astatine the aforesaid valuation if the AI steadfast hits a gross goal, Reuters reported.

These funds are seemingly contingent connected OpenAI going done with a rumored restructure arsenic a for-profit company. The company’s for-profit helping is presently overseen by a nonprofit probe body, and capitalist profits are capped astatine 100x. If OpenAI doesn’t restructure itself arsenic a for-profit institution wrong 2 years, Axios reported, investors tin inquire for their wealth back. Last week, Reuters reported that the institution is considering becoming a nationalist payment corp (like Anthropic).

In a uncommon move, OpenAI besides asked investors to debar backing rival start-ups specified arsenic Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI, the Financial Times reported. It’s worthy noting that OpenAI’s latest backing circular conscionable hardly surpasses Elon Musk’s xAI, which raised $6 cardinal successful May.

This backing circular values OpenAI astatine roughly 40 times its reported revenue, an unprecedented fig that highlights conscionable however overmuch hype surrounds AI successful Silicon Valley. The New York Times reported that OpenAI’s monthly gross deed $300 cardinal successful August, and the institution expects astir $3.7 cardinal successful yearly income this twelvemonth (and estimates that its gross volition scope $11.6 cardinal adjacent year.)

These billions volition spell toward the incredibly costly task of grooming AI frontier models. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said AI models that outgo $1 cardinal to bid are successful improvement and $100 cardinal models are not acold behind. For OpenAI, which wants to physique a bid of “reasoning” models, those costs are lone expected to balloon — making caller backing rounds similar this 1 critical.