news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

according to reuters, on september 15, openai's new round of financing is expected to be in the form of convertible notes, and its $150 billion valuation will depend on whether the chatgpt maker can overturn its corporate structure and remove the profit cap for investors, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

the specific terms of the $6.5 billion financing, which have not been previously reported, show how far openai, the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup, has evolved from a research-based nonprofit and what structural changes it is willing to make to attract more investment to fund its expensive pursuit of artificial general intelligence (agi), or ai that surpasses human intelligence.

the sources added that the oversubscribed round was seeing strong demand from investors given openai’s rapid revenue growth and could be completed within the next two weeks.

existing investors thrive capital, khosla ventures, and microsoft are expected to participate. new investors nvidia and apple are also planning to invest. sequoia capital is also in talks to invest.

if the restructuring is unsuccessful, openai will need to renegotiate with investors the redemption valuation of its shares, which is likely to be lower, the sources told reuters, requesting anonymity to discuss a private matter.

when asked about the funding and potential changes, openai said in a statement that it remains focused on building ai that benefits everyone while working with its nonprofit board.

a company spokesperson said: the nonprofit is core to our mission and will continue to exist.

lifting the profit cap would require approval from openai’s nonprofit board, which consists of chief executive officer sam altman, entrepreneur bret taylor and seven other members.

the company has also discussed with lawyers converting its nonprofit structure into a for-profit benefit corporation, similar to the model used by its competitors anthropic and xai, the sources added, confirming media reports.

it’s unclear whether such a fundamental change in corporate structure will happen. removing the profit cap, which limits investors’ potential returns in openai’s profitable subsidiaries, would provide greater gains for early investors.

it could also raise questions about openai’s governance and departure from its nonprofit mission, which says the cap is intended to incentivize research, development and deployment of agi in a way that balances commerciality, safety and sustainability, rather than focusing on pure profit maximization.

the ai ​​lab, based in san francisco, was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research project that aims to create artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and is currently controlled by a nonprofit parent organization.

the company has accelerated its commercialization by selling subscription services such as chatgpt to consumers and businesses, and currently has more than 200 million users.

returns on investment to existing investors are capped, and any additional returns will be passed on to the nonprofit.

in openai’s first round of funding, investors’ returns were capped at 100 times their investment. the company detailed the structure in a 2019 blog post, saying: “we expect return multiples to be lower in future rounds.”

openai has used this model to raise more than $10 billion in funding in recent years, much of it from microsoft, and was valued at $80 billion in a tender offer in february when it sold an existing stake led by thrive capital.