OpenAI valued at $80B after deal: report
Posted 74 days ago
From WWW.FOXBUSINESS.COM
OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence (AI) company, completed a deal that values the firm at $80 billion or more, according to a new report.
The New York Times reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the deal, that OpenAI would sell shares in a tender offer led by venture capital firm Thrive Capital.
Under the deal, employees will be able to cash out their shares in OpenAI rather than a traditional funding round in which the company would sell shares to investors to raise money for the business, the report added.
OpenAI was involved in a similar deal early last year when VC firms Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and K2 Global bought shares in a tender offer that valued OpenAI at around $29 billion, the Times report noted.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has been a driving force in the rise of AI technologies in the public consciousness following its launch of AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly been in talks to raise funds for a new chip venture as he looks to increase the world’s capacity to build more high-end chips to power AI tools.
Altman briefly left his role at OpenAI late last year amid what was described as a "breakdown in communication" between him and the company’s nonprofit board in November.
Microsoft was set to hire Altman and several of his key allies in leadership at OpenAI, with a large number of the company’s employees threatening to resign before the dispute was resolved in a manner that allowed Altman to stay in his role. Under the agreement, all but one of OpenAI’s board members departed and Microsoft will hold a non-voting observer status on the board.... (Read more)
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