After its latest funding round, emerging artificial intelligence giant OpenAi has surpassed Goldman Sachs in valuation, reaching $157 billion. The company’s valuation has nearly doubled in the last nine months alone. They recently raised $6.6 billion in its latest funding round to eclipse this milestone, with funding led by venture company Thrive Capital.
Microsoft; Nvidia; SoftBank; Khosla Ventures; Altimeter Capital; Fidelity; Tiger Global and MGX also participated in OpenAI’s recent funding. In a Wednesday press release, OpenAI says “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.” The news of funding also comes after the company’s recent decision to transform its company into a for-profit.
OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told employees on Wednesday that the company will be able to provide liquidity for them through a tender offer to buy back their shares in the company following the funding, according to a source close to the matter.
OpenAI has become the leading company in the growing artificial intelligence technology sector. It is the developer behind the popular AI software ChatGPT. Few tech products have ever experienced the meteoric rise of the ChatGPT software. The AI chatbot debuted in 2022 and reached 1 million users just five days after it launched. Its arrival set off a digital revolution. Some of the most prominent companies in the world have sought to enter the space and compete with the program, including Apple and Google.
OpenAI now also rivals Uber and AT&T in terms of valuation. With its recent innovations and the AI sector growing, this number is expected to grow very soon.