OpenAI is reportedly trying to raise $100 billion at a valuation of $830 billion

OpenAI is in talks to raise up to $100 billion in a funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at up to $830 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the company aims to raise financing by the end of the first quarter of next year, and may ask sovereign wealth funds to invest in the round. The Information first reported news of the deal, though it said the fundraising would cost OpenAI $750 billion.

The funding will come as OpenAI commits to spending trillions of dollars and closing deals around the world as the company tries to stay ahead in the race to develop AI technology. The cash infusion will also help the company with its inference spending, which appears to be funded more with cash than cloud credits, suggesting that the company’s computing costs have grown beyond what partnerships and credits can support.

As competition from competitors like Anthropic and Google intensifies, OpenAI has had to step up to launch new models and expand its presence in the developer and tool ecosystem.

On the other hand, broader sentiment around AI has cooled recently, as investors have begun to question whether the pace of debt-driven investment by giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and OpenAI itself can be sustained in the long term. What also doesn’t help is that chip production is being constrained by a shortage in the supply of memory chips, which threatens to impact the broader technology sector.

OpenAI has also been rumored to be working on an IPO as a way to raise tens of billions and fund its development efforts, which are currently said to generate annual revenue at a run rate of around $20 billion. There are also rumors that the company is courting Amazon for a $10 billion investment that would give the AI ​​lab access to the tech giant’s new computing chips.

If the fundraising happens, it would add a significant sum to OpenAI’s coffers, which currently has more than $64 billion, according to PitchBook data. The company was recently valued at $500 billion in a secondary deal.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.