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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Dan Milmo and agency

OpenAI raises $40bn in deal with SoftBank that values it at $300bn

OpenAI SoftBank Sam Altman ChatGPT DeepSeek Masayoshi Son Meta Studio Ghibli
Masayoshi Son and Sam Altman (R) respond to questions after meeting at the prime minister's office on 3 February 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.
‘AI is a defining force shaping humanity’s future,’ said Masayoshi Son, the chair and CEO of SoftBank, left, pictured here with the OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, after a meeting in February. Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images

OpenAI has raised $40bn (£31bn) through fundraising led by the Japanese group SoftBank, in a deal that values the ChatGPT developer at $300bn.

OpenAI said the funding round would allow the company to “push the frontiers of AI research even further”. It added that SoftBank’s support would “pave the way” towards AGI, or artificial general intelligence, the term for AI systems that can match or exceed humans at nearly all cognitive tasks.

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