OpenAI Secures Another Giant Funding Deal
The venture capital round values the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion, and underscores the fierceness of the A.I. money race.
Andrew here. It’s a huge morning of news: We have an exclusive on OpenAI’s latest fund-raising round, with some new boldfaced investor names and one big check; we sort through the latest tariff news and what comes next; we also dive into Figma’s I.P.O. for the ages, and more.
And stay tuned for the jobs numbers, which come out shortly.
OpenAI’s latest mega-round
While Wall Street has been focused on how tech giants are spending on artificial intelligence, the most prominent name in the field, OpenAI, has been racking up big money as well.
DealBook is first to report on the huge numbers, and what the round means for the company behind ChatGPT in the increasingly heated A.I. race.
OpenAI has raised $8.3 billion at a $300 billion valuation, months ahead of schedule, as part of its plan to secure $40 billion in funding this year, DealBook has learned. Back in March, OpenAI announced its ambitious funding plans, with SoftBank committing to provide $30 billion by year-end.
The start-up raised $2.5 billion from venture capital firms that same month, with plans to raise an additional $7.5 billion by the end of the year. Instead, the fund-raising came much sooner — and over target.
A wave of new investors participated in the round, including the private equity giants Blackstone and TPG, and the mutual fund manager T. Rowe Price. Other participants include Fidelity Management, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global and Thrive Capital.
Blackstone and TPG aren’t major investors in A.I. model makers. But they were seen by OpenAI as particularly valuable, since they can promote the adoption of ChatGPT among their portfolio companies, including those in health care, financial services and industrials.
The round was five times oversubscribed — and left some early investors in OpenAI frustrated by the smaller allocations they got as the company prioritized bringing on new strategic backers.
The lead investor was Dragoneer Investment Group, which committed $2.8 billion, an astonishing check from a single venture capital firm that may be one of the largest ever written.
The investment casts a spotlight on Dragoneer, which made successful early bets on companies like Airbnb, Spotify and Uber but has largely stayed behind the scenes in Silicon Valley. Marc Stad, Dragoneer’s founder, is now taking a very public claim on what many in Silicon Valley see as the defining tech platform of the next decade. The investment represents about 10 percent of the firm’s funds.
OpenAI’s business continues to surge. DealBook hears that the company’s annual recurring revenue has soared to $13 billion, up from $10 billion in June — and is projected to surpass $20 billion by the end of the year.
The number of business users who pay for ChatGPT has reached five million, up from three million just a few months ago. (The Information previously reported on some of the growth numbers.)
The new funding round comes amid OpenAI’s delicate negotiations with Microsoft. Remember that OpenAI is seeking to become a for-profit company, a plan that requires sign-off by Microsoft, its biggest investor and business partner.
The stakes are big: A positive outcome could help shape OpenAI’s path toward an eventual I.P.O.