The Microsoft Corp.-backed (NASDAQ:MSFT) AI giant OpenAI is exploring a share sale that would peg the firm’s valuation up to $90 billion, roughly tripling since April this year.
OpenAI is seeking a valuation of up to $90 billion in a share sale that would triple the fortunes of its existing sharehZenger News in six months, people familiar with the discussion told The Wall Street Journal.
Earlier in April this year, OpenAI raised $300 million in a new round of funding that included Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and others at a $29 billion valuation.
The Sam Altman-led OpenAI is backed by Microsoft, which owns a 49% stake in the company. The Windows maker has invested nearly $13 billion in the Altman-led company, integrating its AI technology in various products, including the Edge browser and Windows.
According to the report, the share sale will allow employees to offload their stakes so that no new shares will be issued. This will also help prevent the dilution of stakes of existing sharehZenger News.
Prior to this, Microsoft announced a major investment in OpenAI in January, weeks after OpenAI debuted its game-changing ChatGPT chatbot. The investment is estimated to be nearly $10 billion.
If OpenAI manages to hit the $90 billion valuation mark, it would be amongst the most valuable startups in the world, only behind Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd.
OpenAI announced earlier this year that it estimates to hit the $1 billion revenue mark by the end of 2023. This is no mean feat since the company started generating most of its revenue only after the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
OpenAI has since then made several improvements to ChatGPT, launching the premium GPT-4 service and adding new capabilities like voice and image support, apart from the ability to access the internet as well.
OpenAI’s progress has also stumped key Microsoft rival Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google, which has been working on its own AI technologies for several years now. Google did not have an AI chatbot of its own until recently when it rolled out Bard in a limited beta.
Google is currently working on Gemini, its answer to GPT-4. Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) plans to release Llama 2, its large-language model, later this year.
For now, though, OpenAI is in the driver’s seat, and the Altman-led company is trying to make the most of it.
Produced in association with Benzinga
