OpenAI closed a much-anticipated funding round at a valuation of $157 billion, which was comprised of a $6.6 billion investment from big tech companies and investors as it looks to expand its efforts across generative AI.
The ChatGPT developer did not list the investors in a blog that announced the round, but Bloomberg reported VC company Thrive Capital is the lead investor. CNBC previously reported Thrive Capital planned to invest $1 billion.
Bloomberg reported Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in OpenAI, chipmaker Nvidia, Softbank Group and Abu Dhabi-based MGX also took part in the funding.
The round also included participation from Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity, MGX and Tiger Global, according to the news agency.
“The new funding will allow us to double down on our leadership in frontier AI research, increase compute capacity, and continue building tools that help people solve hard problems,” OpenAI stated in its blog post.
Despite some growing pains, OpenAI is regarded as the leader across the booming generative AI sector ever since it launched ChatGPT two years ago. OpenAI now has 250 million weekly active users on ChatGPT, according to the company.
Reuters reported the company is also moving ahead with plans to establish a separate for-profit entity.
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