On Wednesday (2), OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced it raised $6.6 billion (around R$35 billion) in new investments, bringing the company’s valuation to $157 billion.
According to Reuters, Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm, led the funding round with a $1.2 billion investment, combining its own funds and contributions from smaller investors. Thrive also left open the option of adding another $1 billion next year, contingent on OpenAI meeting certain revenue targets.
Key players like Microsoft, which has been a long-term investor in OpenAI, NVIDIA, a leader in AI chips, and SoftBank, a major backer of chip designer Arm, also participated in this round. The involvement of these industry giants underscores the growing interest in AI hardware as OpenAI continues to develop advanced language models, software, and technology APIs.
In its statement, OpenAI said that the fresh funding will allow the company to enhance its cutting-edge AI research, expand its computational power, and build new tools to help tackle complex challenges.
ChatGPT has 250 million active users, says the company
OpenAI recently shared that over 250 million people use ChatGPT weekly, marking a significant increase of 50 million users since August. At that time, the company had reported reaching 200 million weekly active users in an interview with The Verge. This growth highlights the rapid adoption of the AI tool, as it continues to play an increasingly important role in people’s daily lives and workflows.
The company intends to change structure.
OpenAI is restructuring to become a more traditional for-profit company, similar to other major tech firms, but committed to maintaining some social responsibilities. OpenAI operates as a for-profit limited liability company (LLC) but is overseen by a non-profit entity.
During this transition, the company experienced notable leadership changes, including the departure of Mira Murati, the Chief Technology Officer for six years. Murati played a key role in the development and launch of ChatGPT, marking her departure as a significant change for the company during this pivotal time.
, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced it raised $6.6 billion (around R$35 billion) in new investments, bringing){kind=link}