OpenAI is in talks to complete a deal that would value the company at $80 billion or more, nearly triple its valuation from less than six months ago, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.
The company would sell existing shares in a so-called takeover bid led by venture firm Thrive Capital that would make OpenAI. the most valuable startup in San Francisco, that person said. He was previously informed by Information.
OpenAI declined to comment.
Nearly a year after OpenAI sparked an ai boom with the launch of online chatbot ChatGPT, Silicon Valley’s business machine continues to pump money into the field’s leading companies.
Amazon said last month it would invest up to $4 billion in another San Francisco startup, Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s main competitors. Over the summer, Cohere, a company founded by former Google researchers, raised $270 million, bringing its total funding to more than $440 million. Inflection ai, founded by a former Google executive, raised a $1.3 billion round, bringing its total to $1.5 billion.
In January, Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI, bringing its total investment in the company to $13 billion. In March, Character.ai, another startup founded by former Google employees that creates online chatbots, raised $150 million in a funding round that valued the company at $1 billion.
A month later, venture capital firms Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and K2 Global agreed to buy OpenAI shares in a tender offer, valuing the company at around $29 billion.
Now, Thrive is in talks to lead another public offering that values the company at $80 billion or more, the person with knowledge of the deal said. OpenAI does not issue new shares. The deal would allow company employees to sell their existing shares.
Along with tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, ai startups are among a small group of companies capable of building chatbots like the powerful ChatGPT and similar ai systems.
Funding for other startups has fallen in recent years as investors have favored profits over growth. But investor interest in ai startups remains the exception, because many believe that artificial intelligence has the potential to radically change current technologies and spur growth across the industry.
When it launched late last year, ChatGPT captured the imagination of millions of people with its ability to answer questions, write term papers and poetry, and generate computer code.
As chatbot popularity grew, the broader tech industry embraced what’s called generative artificial intelligence: technologies that can generate text, images, and other media on their own.
The result of more than a decade of research within companies like OpenAI and Google, generative ai technologies are poised to remake everything from Internet search engines like Microsoft Bing to digital tutors and email programs.
Thousands of companies are exploring this new area, but only a few have the resources to develop the technology from scratch. These companies have an unusual combination of experienced researchers, enormous ambitions and large amounts of money.
