OpenAI, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, has reportedly signed a deal that has significantly increased its valuation to $80 billion or more. This marks a nearly threefold increase in less than 10 months.
According to a report in The New York Times, OpenAI plans to sell current shares in a tender offer led by Thrive Capital. This approach allows employees to sell their shares, which is different from the usual funding rounds to raise capital for business operations.
In a similar arrangement in 2023, venture capital firms Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and K2 Global agreed to purchase OpenAI shares in a tender offer, valuing the company at around $29 billion.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also been in discussions to raise funds for a chip venture and explore partnerships with various investors, chip makers, and energy providers. Altman stated that OpenAI would be a significant customer of new factories, aiming to enhance the world’s chip-building capacity to drive new AI-related tools.
In December 2023, it was reported that OpenAI was in talks with investors who were considering investing over $100 billion into the company.
However, in November 2023, there was turmoil within the OpenAI board as Altman was ousted, leading to chaos and doubts about the company’s future. Employees threatened to resign in solidarity, which eventually led to Altman’s reinstatement, although some board members left.
OpenAI enlisted the law firm WilmerHale to investigate the board’s decisions and Altman’s leadership. The findings of this report are expected in early 2024.
OpenAI gained attention in late 2022 with the launch of its ChatGPT, sparking interest in AI and inspiring companies to explore ways to leverage the technology. On February 15, the AI company unveiled its first-ever text-to-video model called Sora. Although the model is still in development, it can create detailed videos from simple text prompts, continue existing videos, and even generate scenes based on a still image.
OpenAI has not yet responded to a request for comment on the recent deal.
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