OpenAI is actively pursuing additional investments to complete its ambitious $40 billion funding round that was announced earlier this year. This effort is set to reopen on July 28, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans.
Currently valued at $300 billion, OpenAI’s funding round is primarily backed by SoftBank, which has committed 75% of the total investment. The initial allocation included $10 billion, composed of $7.5 billion from SoftBank and $2.5 billion from other investors. As OpenAI seeks to raise the remaining $30 billion, it hopes to secure $22.5 billion from SoftBank while gathering an additional $7.5 billion from a consortium of investors.
However, reports indicate that SoftBank’s investment might be reduced to $10 billion unless OpenAI transitions its structure by the end of the year. Overall, the company has raised about $63.92 billion since it was established in 2015, with major backers including Microsoft, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital.
Microsoft maintains a deep partnership with OpenAI, providing significant cloud computing resources in return for exclusive access to advanced models. Despite this collaborative relationship, recent reports suggest emerging complexities.
In addition to fundraising activities, OpenAI and SoftBank are engaged in a significant AI data center initiative that entails an investment of approximately $500 billion. The project is moving forward with site assessments and innovative designs for data centers. Both entities expressed commitment in a joint statement to implement this project rapidly.
OpenAI has also been faced with internal challenges regarding its corporate structure. Co-founder Elon Musk, who departed the board in 2018, has publicly criticized the company for diverging from its original mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits humanity.
To address these concerns, OpenAI presented a new organizational structure that retains non-profit control while transforming its current for-profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation. This proposal needs approval from attorneys general in California and Delaware by early next year for SoftBank’s investment to proceed.
For further details regarding OpenAI’s funding rounds and partnerships, visit the SoftBank news press release.
