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on october 3, openai announced on its official website that it had received us$6.6 billion (approximately rmb 46.3 billion) in financing. this funding made the artificial intelligence company one of the most highly valued startups in history. the company’s post-investment valuation has reached us$157 billion, approximately rmb 1.1 trillion.

openai, which received financing, did not disclose specific investors on its official website. according to reports from reuters and other media, this round of financing was led by american venture capital fund thrive capital, and participants also included fidelity, microsoft and other institutions. chip giant nvidia also participated for the first time, and institutions such as softbank and uae investment company mgx also appeared.

openai valuation exceeds 1 trillion

according to the official website of openai, it was recently announced that the company has received a new round of financing of us$6.6 billion, and its post-investment valuation has reached us$157 billion (approximately 1.1 trillion yuan). the new funding will allow the company to double down on its leadership in cutting-edge ai research to "increase computing power and continue building tools that help people solve difficult problems," the company said.

according to the financial times, xingsheng capital provided approximately us$1.3 billion in openai’s current round of financing. among them, approximately us$750 million was invested by xingsheng capital’s own funds, and approximately us$550 million came from investment by xingsheng capital’s partners. the company also said that if openai achieves expected revenue, it will receive another $1 billion in financing next year.

in addition, microsoft, the largest shareholder of openai, has invested an additional us$750 million in addition to its previous investment of us$13 billion. softbank group’s investment scale is around us$500 million.

in addition, nvidia, fidelity, khosla ventures, uae investment company mgx and other institutions are also participants in this round of investment, but no specific investment amount has been announced.

it is worth mentioning that many foreign media previously reported that apple also participated in this round of financing negotiations, but ultimately did not participate in the investment. but currently, apple has established a partnership with openai, which also allows apple devices to use the ai ​​functions it provides.

the financial times reported that openai also asked investors participating in this round of financing not to support rival startups, such as musk’s xai.

in addition to direct financial support from venture capitalists, openai later announced on its official website that it had obtained a us$4 billion (approximately rmb 28 billion) revolving credit line from multiple banks, which also brought the company’s total liquidity to more than us$10 billion. .

according to the company, banks including jpmorgan chase, citigroup, goldman sachs, morgan stanley, santander, wells fargo, sumitomo mitsui banking corporation, ubs group ag and hsbc are all participating in credit support.

will transform into a for-profit company

in fact, while receiving financing, openai is advancing step by step on the road to commercialization.

data shows that when the company was founded in 2015, its organizational structure was mainly composed of the for-profit company openai lp and the non-profit parent company openai inc. this hybrid structure allows openai to maintain its non-profit mission while also attracting venture capital and commercial operations.

recently, according to foreign media reports, openai plans to reorganize its core business into a for-profit welfare company. this for-profit welfare company will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board of directors, making the company more attractive to investors. . openai's nonprofit will continue to exist but only holds a minority stake in the for-profit company.

it is worth noting that the restructuring plan also includes providing an unspecified amount of equity to openai ceo sam altman for the first time, and will also remove the cap on returns for investors. prior to this, altman did not hold any shares in openai. he has also said that holding shares in openai does not mean much to him, and he has already made far more money than he needs early in his career.

transforming into a for-profit company would appear to conflict with the company's founding vision. when it was founded in 2015, openai clarified the company's vision in a statement: the goal is to develop ai technology to "benefit all mankind, without being restricted by the need for financial returns."

however, in the process of openai's transformation into a commercial company, a number of early employees have resigned due to fierce internal conflicts of ideas, including openai's core scientists ilya sutskever and john schulman. ), jan leike and others are also related to changes in the company's business philosophy.

musk sues openai again

in addition to the controversy over its transformation into a for-profit company, openai and its ceo altman are also facing litigation pressure from tesla founder elon musk.

in march 2024, musk filed a lawsuit against openai, its ceo altman and others in court, accusing them of violating the agreement signed when openai was established and instead pursuing commercial interests, especially establishing a partnership with microsoft and converting gpt- 4 the details of this advanced ai technology are kept confidential so that it can serve microsoft’s commercial purposes. this behavior deviates from the non-profit nature and original intention of openai.

in fact, as an important supporter of openai in its early days, musk provided a large amount of capital and resource investment to openai in the early days, expecting openai to adhere to the principles of non-profit and open source. however, as openai developed, musk found that his investments and expectations had not received their due returns, and the company's development direction was far from his original vision.

musk’s lawsuit asks the court to force openai to return to open source, prevent the company, its founders, and backers such as microsoft from profiting from it, and repay the funds he donated. in 2023, musk also joined other experts and industry leaders in calling for a moratorium of at least 6 months on the development of systems more powerful than openai's gpt-4, citing significant risks to humanity. this is exactly the opposite of altmann's pursuit of newer developments at all costs.

however, in june this year, a court document showed that musk voluntarily dropped his previous lawsuit against openai and the company’s two co-founders in a california court.

by august this year, musk once again sued openai and its two founders, sam altman and greg brockman, to the northern california federal court for a total of 15 reasons, including fraud, breach of express contract, false publicity, etc. , 83 pages long.

it is worth noting that the new complaint is almost twice as long as the original complaint, and also adds new charges of extortion against openai. musk believed he had invested his reputation, time and tens of millions of dollars in seed funding into openai, only to be betrayed by altman and his associates.

musk's lawsuit alleges that by working with microsoft, altman established an opaque network of openai's for-profit subsidiaries, engaged in rampant self-dealing, seized control of the board of directors, and systematically drained the nonprofit organization of valuable technology and talent.