OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) program, has seen its enterprise value soar to $157 billion (W208 trillion). With large companies investing this time, OpenAI will convert its existing non-profit corporate structure into a for-profit corporation.
OpenAI said in an official statement on its website on the 2nd (local time) that it has completed the recruitment of $6.6 billion in new investments and has an enterprise value of $157 billion. OpenAI said, “With the funds raised, we will double our leadership in cutting-edge AI research and continue to develop programs to help people solve difficult problems.”
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the funding was led by venture capitalist Scrib Capital. Scrib Capital invested 1.25 billion dollars, Softbank invested 500 million dollars, Microsoft invested 1 billion dollars, and Nvidia 100 million dollars, respectively. MGX, a state-run AI investment company created by the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, is also said to have participated, while Ark Investment, run by Cathy Wood, also listed as 250 million dollars. Apple reportedly negotiated investment, but it failed in the end.
The investment also calls for converting existing non-profit companies into for-profit companies. “This investment gives investors the right to renegotiate or receive reimbursement of corporate value if OpenAI fails to complete the transition to a for-profit company within two years,” the Wall Street Journal said. “The cap on investor earnings has disappeared again.”
What stands out in particular is that investors have banned investment in competitors. According to Reuters, the five competitors are Elon Musk’s XAI, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutzkeber’s Safe Super Intelligence (SSI), OpenAI researchers’ Anthropic, and OpenAI researchers’ Anthropic, as well as AI search engine startup PurpleLexity and corporate search firm Glynn.
Thanks to the latest funding, OpenAI’s corporate value has skyrocketed. It is 5.4 times larger than the 29 billion dollars Microsoft invested in early last year. This is an 83 percent jump from 86 billion dollars that was evaluated in stock sales transactions by employees early this year. The recognized corporate value of 157 billion dollars is far ahead of 95.5 billion dollars of Intel, a large chipmaker that is facing a crisis.
CNBC News quoted a close aide to OpenAI as saying, “The sales forecast for this year is between $3.6 billion and $3.7 billion,” but added, “The net loss is expected to reach $5 billion considering the cost of training and execution of large-scale language models and the size of purchases of GPUs.” However, as sales rose 1,700% from the beginning of last year, with sales reaching 300 million dollars last month, high-speed external growth is expected to continue. CNBC added, “Inside OpenAI, we expect sales to reach 11.6 billion dollars next year.”
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
