OpenAI, the origin of the current artificial intelligence revolution in the tech industry, is looking to raise money soon. The company, which has long sought to switch its management model to for-profit, is trying to stay ahead of tough competition from established companies and emerging names—such as DeepSeek. With that in mind, OpenAI will reportedly conduct a funding round that will push its valuation to around 300 billion dollars.
As reported by CNBC, the AI-focused company is currently in talks with companies interested in funding its operations. The funding round could seek to raise up to $40 billion in total.
OpenAI’s valuation could reach around 300 billion dollars thanks to SoftBank funding
According to the source, SoftBank, the Japanese multinational investor, will become OpenAI’s main backer by contributing between $15 billion $25 billion. Part of this could go to the US’ Stargate project to set up data centers for AI and power plants. SoftBank could overtake Microsoft, which has long been the largest third-party company contributing the most money to OpenAI’s operations. The Redmond giant is estimated to have funded the AI company with around $13 billion.
SoftBank itself estimates that OpenAI is currently valued at around $260 billion. Just a few months ago, the company led by Sam Altman was worth around $150 billion, so it has grown significantly in a short time.
The move comes at a delicate time for the US AI industry. DeepSeek’s emergence caused the stocks of NVIDIA—main AI chip supplier in the world—and others to crash. It also raised doubts among investors about the profitability of the US AI industry because DeepSeek training apparently required a small fraction of the money that other big names spend—although experts are already questioning this claim.
DeepSeek could be the biggest potential threat to OpenAI
OpenAI’s last round of funding occurred in October 2024. Back then, the company raised around $6.6 billion in funding. While it seemed like OpenAI had the toughest competition at home, DeepSeek changed the rules of the game. That said, OpenAI and Microsoft are currently not very happy with the way the Chinese company’s AI models were trained. The US firms reportedly have evidence that DeepSeek integrated GPT data using distillation. After suspicions arose, Howard Lutnick—Trump’s nominee for US commerce secretary—claimed that DeepSeek “stolen” US technology.
2025-02-01 15:05:17