According to media reports, sources have revealed that Japan's SoftBank Group plans to invest $500 million in OpenAI's latest large-scale financing round.
Based on previous information, this American artificial intelligence company is negotiating with investors and is expected to raise $6.5 billion with a valuation of $150 billion. Investors from well-known venture capital firm Thrive Capital and Microsoft are among them.
This round of financing is expected to consolidate OpenAI's position as the world's most valuable startup, and if listed at a valuation of $150 billion, OpenAI's market value will be close to that of top investment bank Goldman Sachs. As of press time, Goldman Sachs' total market value is $156.2 billion.
It should be pointed out that if the news is true, this will be SoftBank's first investment in OpenAI.
In June of this year, SoftBank established a strategic partnership with Perplexity, one of OpenAI's competitors, and invested $10 million to $20 million in it, bringing Perplexity's valuation to $3 billion.
In July of this year, SoftBank Group's stock, which was listed in Japan, once set a historical record of 12180 yen per share. Although there has been a slight decline, the increase since the beginning of the year is close to 34%, reflecting investors' approval of the company's decision to bet on AI.
Caixin News Agency has mentioned that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has visited Son Masayoshi multiple times. Previously, there were media reports that in addition to SoftBank's investment in OpenAI, the two companies may also collaborate on the development of AI chips.
However, OpenAI currently faces extremely high levels of uncertainty. Last week, it was reported that the company is preparing a restructuring plan to transfer its core business to a for-profit company in order to enhance its attractiveness to investors.
However, at the same time, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati announced her departure from the company. Previously, Murati had stated that OpenAI was building the GPT-5 model, and her departure may once again affect the constantly delayed release schedule.
After Murati, OpenAI's Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and Vice President Barret Zoph also resigned one after another. Last Friday, it was reported that Apple withdrew from the OpenAI funding round negotiations. Analysis suggests that this may be related to the departure of several key figures from the company.
In addition, a financial document seen by the media shows that OpenAI's speed of making money is far behind the speed of "burning money": the company expects revenue of $3.7 billion this year and a loss of about $5 billion.