The $40 billion financing now values OpenAI at $300 billion. According to PitchBook, this funding round is nearly three times the largest amount previously raised by a private tech company.

The company has said that the funding round “enables us to push the frontiers of AI research even further, scale our compute infrastructure, and deliver increasingly powerful tools for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week.”

OpenAI’s valuation places the company behind SpaceX at $350 billion.

As assumed when rumours of the funding round first began, SoftBank, the Japanese investment company, led the round with $30 billion. It was joined by other backers, including OpenAI’s core investor Microsoft, and Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive.

OpenAI is poised to receive an initial $10 billion injection, with SoftBank contributing $7.5 billion and an additional $2.5 billion coming from a consortium of investors, according to Bloomberg. However, the bigger payday – $30 billion – is contingent on a major structural shift. According to CNBC, OpenAI must finalise its transition to a for-profit entity by year-end to secure the full amount. Failing that, a quarter of the deal could vanish.

It is believed that some of the new funding will contribute to OpenAI’s involvement in Stargate, the collaboration with SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX. This initiative outlines a multibillion-dollar investment in American AI infrastructure, and promises to build out AI datacentres over the next four years.

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