OpenAI is seeking capital from new and existing investors, two people familiar with the company’s plans tell WIRED. The fundraising effort is part of a $40 billion round announced in March. The round will reopen on Monday, July 28, according to one of the sources, who has direct knowledge of the fundraising effort.
The $40 billion round announced earlier this year brought OpenAI’s valuation up to $300 billion, making it one of the most highly valued private startups in history. The round was led by Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank, which committed to contributing 75 percent of the total funding. The initial tranche was $10 billion, with $7.5 billion from SoftBank and another $2.5 billion from a syndicate of other investors. OpenAI is currently raising the final $30 billion, with $22.5 from SoftBank and $7.5 from a syndicate of other investors.
SoftBank’s commitment could be slashed to $10 billion if OpenAI does not restructure by the end of the year, WIRED confirmed.
OpenAI declined to comment on the record.
OpenAI has raised a total of $63.92 billion since the company was founded in 2015, according to PitchBook. Its backers include a wide range of institutional and individual investors, including Microsoft, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Coatue Management, Nvidia, and Reid Hoffman. Microsoft and OpenAI’s relationship is closely intertwined, with Microsoft providing OpenAI with massive amounts of cloud computing resources and OpenAI giving Microsoft exclusive access to its best models—though it was recently reported that their relationship has complications.
OpenAI has also partnered with SoftBank, among others, on a four-year AI data center project in which upwards of $500 billion is projected to be invested. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the two entities have been at odds over certain aspects of the partnership, including where to build the data centers, and that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been making moves to sign deals for Stargate-aligned data centers without the Japanese firm.
SoftBank declined to comment on the record.
OpenAI’s company structure has also been a point of contention, and has rankled Elon Musk, who helped launch the research lab with a mission to safeguard humanity against artificial general intelligence, or AGI. After Musk left the company’s board in early 2018,OpenAI created a for-profit arm, in part to make it easier to fundraise. Last year Musk sued OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its original mission and said the company is “not just developing but is refining an AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity.”
In May, OpenAI proposed a new structure that keeps the non-profit in control of the company, and turns its current for-profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation. This new non-profit would hold shares in the PBC, and the PBC would in theory be designed to prioritize returns for shareholders while also pursuing projects with clear public benefits. SoftBank’s investment in OpenAI is contingent on this new structure being approved by attorneys general in California and in Delaware by early next year.
Additional reporting by Kylie Robison and Zoë Schiffer.
