The deal, set to make OpenAI the world's second most valuable startup, will include up to $30bn from SoftBank and quadruples the previous fundraising record.
Telecoms and internet group SoftBank has led the largest funding round for a startup yet, a $40bn fundraising for generative artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, which closed yesterday
The transaction outstrips the previous record, the $10bn series J closed by data and AI company Databricks last December, as well as the $6.6bn raised by OpenAI at a $157bn valuation last October.
SoftBank is providing up to $30bn for this round and is being joined by software producer Microsoft and investment firms reportedly including Coatue, Altimeter and Thrive Capital. The deal values OpenAI at $300bn post-money, putting it only behind SpaceX in the list of the world’s most highly valued startups.
The move shows how SoftBank has to some extent replaced Microsoft as OpenAI’s closest corporate backer. Although Microsoft supplied most of the company’s earlier funding, it was SoftBank that joined the company as lead partners in the $500bn Stargate AI infrastructure project in January.
Stargate will involve building out a network of data centres across the US to meet AI data needs. SoftBank has taken on financial responsibility while OpenAI is in charge of operational responsibility, leading a list of technology partners which includes Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle and former SoftBank subsidiary Arm.
The latest funding will support research and the expansion of OpenAI’s computing infrastructure as it pushes towards artificial general intelligence (AGI), a form of AI that will theoretically be able to understand tasks the way a human would.
SoftBank said in a statement disclosing its investment that it believes OpenAI is closest among its partners to achieving AGI, adding that it had already invested $2.2bn in the company through its Vision Fund 2. That fund joined Microsoft and Nvidia in the $6.6bn round in October.
The details of the latest deal are dependent on OpenAI succeeding in converting from a non-profit organisation to a for-profit entity in the coming months. SoftBank has agreed to provide up to $30bn if it does so by the end of this year, capping its investment at $10bn if it does not.
