The global unicorn of trillions has arrived.
On October 3rd, OpenAI, known for its ChatGPT, announced the completion of a new round of massive financing, with a total amount of $6.6 billion and a post investment valuation of $157 billion (approximately RMB 1.1 trillion), setting a new record for investment transactions. So far, OpenAI has become one of the top three start-ups in the world, including SpaceX founded by Musk and ByteDance of Zhang Yiming.
OpenAI stated that the new funding will enable the company to strengthen its leadership position in cutting-edge artificial intelligence research, enhance computing capabilities, and continue building tools to help people solve problems.
According to Bloomberg citing informed sources, this round of financing is led by ThriveCapital with an investment amount of $1.3 billion. OpenAI's biggest supporter, Microsoft, has invested approximately $750 million on top of the original $13 billion.
Other institutions will invest in the company through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), which are entities through which venture funds can raise capital for specific purposes. Among them, SoftBank invested $500 million, Tiger Global Investment invested $350 million, and Altimeter Capital invested $250 million. Other investors include Khoslav Ventures, Fidelity Management Research, and Nvidia.
It is worth mentioning that the rumored Apple company did not appear on the investment list for this round. Previously, OpenAI integrated ChatGPT into Apple phone devices and implemented artificial intelligence functions through Siri voice assistant. There were reports that the two sides had discussed investment related matters, which were later terminated.
OpenAI not only needs capital, but also seeks to restrain its competitors through financing.
According to the Financial Times, the company hopes investors will not invest in five direct competitors, including Anthropic, SafeSuperintelligence (SSI) founded by Ilya Sutskever, Musk's xAI, AI startup Perplexity, and AI search company Glean.
Ilya Sutskever was a co-founder and chief scientist of OpenAI, involved in the dismissal of the company's CEO Sam Altman, and chose to leave OpenAI in May of this year. Subsequently, Ilya Sutskever founded SSI, which has now raised $1 billion and is valued at $5 billion. SSI's investor Sequoia Capital did not participate in OpenAI's current round of financing.
In May, xAI, founded by Musk, raised $6 billion in funding, with a post investment valuation of $24 billion, far lower than OpenAI's valuation. The founder of another artificial intelligence company, Anthropic, is also a former co-founder of OpenAI.
SoftBank and Fidelity have both invested in xAI and OpenAI before. But in the field of big model languages, OpenAI already has enough first mover advantage to have a significant impact on investors, which will also exacerbate the company's conflicts with other startups.
Just a week ago, OpenAI experienced a collective exodus of executives, including Chief Technology Officer MiraMurat and two other executives, causing a huge uproar and once again pushing the already controversial Altman to the forefront.
Regarding this financing, OpenAI stated that it will ensure progress in its mission of benefiting humanity through artificial intelligence. However, it is undergoing a corporate restructuring, which deviates from its initial non-profit commitment.
At the end of September, the company announced its intention to restructure its core business into a for-profit welfare company, no longer under the control of a non-profit board of directors, and allowing investors to receive more benefits when the startup is profitable. Altman will also acquire equity in the company. Currently, OpenAI is discussing a restructuring plan with lawyers and shareholders, and the timeline for completing the restructuring is uncertain.
As part of the financing, Altman is in negotiations with investors regarding holding company equity. Previously, Altman had refuted the extremely "absurd" news that he would acquire a 7% stake (worth over $10 billion) in the new profit-making entity.
As an early investor, Musk sued OpenAI and its related executives in August regarding this matter.
Despite ongoing internal and external issues, ChatGPT is still used by over 250 million people worldwide every week, with over 1 million enterprise users. OpenAI expects its total revenue to reach $3.7 billion this year, and is expected to increase to $11.6 billion next year, reaching $100 billion by 2029.
When it comes to the impact of the departure of core executives on the future development of the company, Altman once responded on social media X, saying, "Leadership changes are a natural part of a company, especially those that are developing so rapidly and have such strict requirements
Altman also emphasized that in the past year or so, he has spent most of his time on non-technical aspects of the company. Next, he will devote more energy to technology and products.
In the short term, OpenAI, with abundant financial resources, can indeed accelerate its progress. However, considering the high investment cost of large models, fierce external competition, and unresolved internal management and company mechanism issues, there is still a lot of uncertainty about whether it can lead in the long run.