Privately held artificial intelligence (A.I.) start-up OpenAI has raised $6.6 billion U.S. in its latest funding round based on a valuation of $157 billion U.S.
The San Francisco-based company was last valued at $86 billion U.S. earlier this year. Its valuation has nearly doubled in six months. In 2021, OpenAI was valued at $14 billion U.S.
In a blog post, management said they plan to use the money raised to further OpenAI’s research and enhance its computing power.
Media reports say that technology giants Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) each invested in the company behind ChatGPT during this latest funding round.
Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI, having allocated more than $13 billion U.S. to the company in the past 18 months.
The closing of this latest funding round comes as OpenAI shifts to become a for-profit company, moving away from its previous nonprofit status.
That change has led to executive resignations at OpenAI. The company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati resigned in late September of this year.
OpenAI continues to grow at a brisk pace and remains unprofitable.
The company recently disclosed that it will generate $3.6 billion U.S. in revenue this year but lose $5 billion U.S.
OpenAI is privately held and its stock does not trade on a public exchange.