OpenAI Seeks $40 Billion in New Fundraising Round, Report Says

Photo : AP

OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT, wants to raise $40 billion in a new funding round. This would make the company worth $340 billion.

Japan's SoftBank is leading this round and is talking about investing between $15 billion and $25 billion, which would make it OpenAI's biggest investor.

This news comes after DeepSeek, a startup from China, made a new chatbot that works well but costs much less than those made by American companies. This shocked the market.

SoftBank’s investment is part of a bigger plan. OpenAI had already raised money three months ago, which valued the company at $157 billion. Now, they want to double that amount. This shows how much money is needed to make powerful computer programs.

SoftBank and OpenAI are also working together on a project called Stargate, which will spend $500 billion to improve artificial intelligence in the United States. Some of OpenAI's new money will go towards this project.

SoftBank already promised to put more than $15 billion into Stargate, and it could end up spending more than $40 billion with OpenAI.

SoftBank’s stock went up by 3% after this news. The company is known for making smart investments in companies like Yahoo! and Alibaba. Now, they are focusing on AI and have investments in the chip company Arm.

Elon Musk, who was an early investor in OpenAI, said that the Stargate project’s investors don’t have enough money to fund it. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s founder, disagreed with Musk and called his statement wrong.