OpenAI has officially closed its latest funding round, raising $6.6 billion in a deal that values the startup at a massive $157 billion, the company announced on Wednesday.
The deal, at roughly double the valuation the startup fetched in February, underscores investors’ red hot expectation for the generative AI boom that OpenAI ignited with the release of ChatGPT.
And it cements OpenAI’s status as one of the most valuable startups in the world, only trailing behind Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX and TikTok owner ByteDance, according to CB Insights’ list of tech company valuations.
The funding comes as the artificial intelligence startup has been roiled by a string of high-level departures and internal disagreement over the company’s evolution from a non-profit research lab to a producer of commercial AI products. OpenAI kicked off the generative AI boom when it introduced ChatGPT in November 2022.
OpenAI’s valuation has nearly doubled from its level earlier this year, when it conducted a tender offer for employees to sell some of their shares to private investors in a deal that valued the company at around $80 billion.
In an email to Fortune, venture capital firm Thrive Capital confirmed it had invested and led this latest round. OpenAI didn’t respond to an immediate request for comment. News of the funding round was first reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday.
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