The generative AI vendor closed its latest funding round, raising $122 billion at a valuation of $852 billion.
The final $122 billion figure, OpenAI’s largest fundraising round yet, is up from the $110 billion originally revealed in February.
However, it may not hold that status for much longer, with the firm widely expected to launch an IPO later this year.
OpenAI confirmed the latest investment in a statement on the OpenAI website, in which the vendor claimed it was becoming “the core infrastructure for AI”.
The bulk of the funding comes from OpenAI’s strategic partners, Amazon ($50 billion), Nvidia ($30 billion) and SoftBank ($30 billion), with the Japanese investment holding company leading the round.
Other significant backers include Andreesen Horowitz, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, TPG and D.E. Shaw Ventures and continued participation by long-term partner Microsoft, despite the recent loosening of ties between Microsoft and OpenAI.
In addition, for the first time, OpenAI extended participation to investors through bank channels, raising more than $3 billion from individual investors. The vendor also said it would be included in exchange-traded funds managed by ARK Invest, further broadening ownership, and extended its revolving credit facility to $4.7 billion.
The vast funding package comes amid a landscape marked by widespread concern about OpenAI’s ability to generate sufficient revenue to justify its huge spending on building out AI infrastructure.
CFO Sarah Friar has been direct in describing the need to bring money in, particularly in the wake of CEO Sam Altman’s acknowledgment that the AI lab is “looking at [spending] commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next 8 years.”
The continuing skepticism about OpenAI’s future perhaps explains the bullish tone of the statement released to confirm the closing of the latest funding round: “At this stage, we are growing revenue four times faster than the companies who defined the Internet and mobile eras, including Alphabet and Meta.”
To back up this claim, the vendor pointed out that OpenAI was the fastest tech platform to reach 10 million and then 100 million users and said it would soon be the quickest to reach 1 billion weekly active users.
OpenAI also said it is now generating $2.6 billion in revenue monthly.
On the consumer side, ChatGPT now has more than 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million subscribers.
OpenAI, meanwhile, said its advertising pilot achieved more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue in six weeks.
The vendor also said its enterprise business is growing too, now contributing more than 40% of its revenue, and on track to reach parity with consumer revenue by the end of 2026.
OpenAI also provided a signpost to its future ambitions, reiterating its goal to create a unified AI “superapp” that will combine ChatGPT, Codex and browsing and other agentic capabilities.
