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openai has just completed its financing and received another us$4 billion in credit lines. its liquidity exceeds us$10 billion.

2024-10-04

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according to media reports, openai currently has a us$4 billion revolving credit line provided by multiple financial institutions, bringing its total liquidity to more than us$10 billion. previously, openai just announced on wednesday that it had completed financing at a valuation of us$157 billion in its latest financing round, raising us$6.6 billion from a large number of investment companies and technology giants.

according to reports,jpmorgan chase, citibank,goldman sachsmorgan stanleysantanderwells fargo, sumitomo mitsui banking corporation, ubs group ag and hsbc bank all participated in the credit facility. the facility has a base credit line of $4 billion, with an option to increase it by $2 billion.

the loan is unsecured and can be used within three years.OpenAIthe interest rate is equal to the secured overnight financing rate (sofr) plus 100 basis points. as of the beginning of this week, the sofr was just above 5%, meaning openai would pay roughly 6% interest on immediate borrowings.

openai said in a statement thursday that it plans to use the funds to invest in research and product, expandinfrastructureand attract talent.

"this means we now have access to over $10 billion of liquidity, which gives us the flexibility to invest in new projects and have complete flexibility as we expand, and is yet another testament to our partnership with a group of outstanding financial institutions , many of whom are also openai customers.”

openai’s recent funding round attracted a large number of investment firms and technology giants. the round was led by thrive capital and includes existing backers.microsoftand chip manufacturersnvidia,microsoft,softbank, khosla ventures, altimeter capital, fidelity management & research company, mgx and tiger global management also participated.

earlier this year, openai was reportedly valued at $80 billion, up from $29 billion in 2023. the latest round of financing has nearly doubled openai’s valuation to $157 billion.

according to previous media reports, openai’s revenue reached us$300 million in august, an increase of 1,700% from the beginning of last year. sources told the media that the company expects sales to reach us$11.6 billion next year, much higher than us$3.7 billion in 2024.

but all this revenue comes with huge costs, as openai must significantly increase its purchases of nvidia gpus to train and run its large language models. the company expects to lose about $5 billion this year. in addition, microsoft has invested billions of dollars in openai and is a key partner of the company as the software giant strengthens its azure cloud business.

openai has also experienced turmoil in recent months, with many important executives leaving. last week, openai chief technology officer mira murati, head of research bob mcgrew and vice president of research barret zoph all left.

a person familiar with the matter told the media that openai held an all-staff meeting last thursday, at which the board of directors decided to consider restructuring the company into a for-profit enterprise. if that transition occurs, the nonprofit sector will continue to exist as a separate entity. at that meeting, openai ceo altman denied reports that he would receive a "significant equity stake," calling the information "completely untrue."

bret taylor, chairman of openai, told the media in a statement last week that although the board has discussed the issue, no specific numbers have been discussed.

"the board did discuss whether giving altman equity would be beneficial to the company and our mission, but no specific numbers were discussed and no decision was made," taylor said.