Sam Altman’s OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in a new fundraising round that nearly doubled its valuation to $157 billion — and has reportedly urged participants not to give money to rivals like Elon Musk’s xAI as competition in the sector heats up .
The massive round was led by venture capitalist Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, which contributed a total of $1.2 billion through its own investment and a separate entity for smaller investors, sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.
“The new funding will allow us to double down on our leadership in frontier AI research, increase computational capacity and continue to build tools that help people solve hard problems,” OpenAI said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Longtime backer Microsoft also participated in the round along with AI chip supplier Nvidia, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Abu Dhabi state-backed fund MGX, Altimeter Capital and Fidelity.
Thrive also secured the exclusive right to invest another $1 billion at the same valuation next year if OpenAI hits a revenue target.
In a unique twist, OpenAI told participants that they expected any contributions to be exclusive – meaning they should avoid investing in competitors such as xAI and Anthropic, sources told the Financial Times.
The request is considered unusual in Silicon Valley circles, where venture capital firms pour money into multiple firms within the same sector to maximize their chances of earning a windfall.
“Because the round was so oversubscribed, OpenAI said to people, ‘We’ll give you distribution, but we want you to be involved in a meaningful way in the business, so you can’t commit to competitors. ours,” a source with knowledge of the deal told the FT.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but left after a dispute over its direction. He is currently suing OpenAI and has accused Altman and his allies of “deliberately misleading and deceiving” him into contributing more than $44 million in the early years.
OpenAI’s funding round hinges on a planned restructuring that would shift control of the company from its nonprofit board of directors to a for-profit entity — with Altman set to take an unspecified equity stake.
Investors could reportedly renegotiate OpenAI’s valuation — or get their money out in full — if the restructuring isn’t completed within two years, according to Reuters. Internal talks about the restructuring are said to be ongoing and no timeline has been set for the change.
Less than a year ago, OpenAI closed a round that valued the firm at $87 billion.
The maker of ChatGPT will earn about $3.6 billion in revenue this year against losses of more than $5 billion. Revenue is said to grow to $11.6 billion in 2025.
The latest round closed even as OpenAI navigates ongoing turmoil in its executive ranks.
Chief technology officer Mira Murati and two other senior executives announced their resignations last week, just as the first reports of a possible restructuring emerged.
During an all-party meeting last Thursday, Altman was said to be adamant that the sudden departures were unrelated to the board’s deliberations.
Altman also disputed a report that he was set to take a 7% stake in OpenAI that could be worth around $10.5 billion — calling it “ridiculous,” according to The Information.
Elsewhere, Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI, said last month he would take an extended leave of absence until the end of the year, while another co-founder John Schulman left for a job at OpenAI rival Anthropic.
In May, co-founder Ilya Sutskever and researcher Jan Leike left after OpenAI disbanded its “Superalignment” team, which was responsible for overseeing the safe development of advanced AI.
Some current and former OpenAI employees have expressed concern that Altman and his allies are prioritizing rapid advances in AI over security.
By postal wire
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