According to recent news, after the end of the management "palace fight", OpenAI is actively "collecting money", and the new financing may make the hot artificial intelligence (AI) unicorn exceed the valuation of 100 billion US dollars.
On Friday, December 22, Eastern time, **, citing sources familiar with the matter, OpenAI is conducting preliminary negotiations on a new round of financing, and the company's valuation may reach or exceed $100 billion due to this financing. Investors who may be involved in this round of financing are already participating in the consultations. Details such as the terms, valuation, and timing of this round of financing have not yet been finalized and are subject to change.
Neither OpenAI nor major shareholder Microsoft have commented on the news.
If the above financing news is accurate, after the completion of the financing, OpenAI's valuation will really reach $100 billion, judging by the data of enterprise analysis platform Cbinsights, OpenAI will become the second most valuable startup in the United States after Musk's SpaceX.
The $100 billion valuation also means that OpenAI's market valuation has doubled several times in the past year. OpenAI was valued at $29 billion when Microsoft pledged to invest $10 billion in OpenAI earlier this year.
Wall Street News has mentioned that shortly after the end of the "Gong Dou" in which OpenAI CEO Altman was unexpectedly ousted and soon reinstated, it was said that OpenAI's stock sale plan continued, and large investors were still optimistic about OpenAI's high valuation, which is expected to reach $86 billion. According to Friday's ** news, the deal was led by New York venture capital Thrive Capital, and investor demand exceeded the actual amount raised.
On Friday, people familiar with the matter also mentioned that OpenAI is also seeking financing for its chip joint venture, which has been discussed by G42, a technology holding company in Abu Dhabi, hoping to raise $8 billion to $10 billion from G42. It is unclear whether the chip company and OpenAI's aforementioned financing activities are related.
G42 is the first national Internet platform in the United Arab Emirates, playing the role of an Internet infrastructure platform, and has been likened to "Alibaba + Tencent in the Middle East". At present, G42 has existing AI companies such as Core42, AIQ, and Presight, medical and health companies M42 and Hayat Biotech, data center service provider Khazna, and geospatial intelligence company Bayanat.