According to CNBC's website, OpenAI, a leader in the field of artificial intelligence, recently received a new investment of $1.5 billion from Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank. This is a supplement to OpenAI's latest funding round in October, which received $6.6 billion in funding at a valuation of $157 billion.
Accompanying SoftBank's new investment is OpenAI's tender offer program for employees, which allows them to cash out a total of approximately $1.5 billion worth of shares.
It is worth noting that this acquisition offer is unrelated to OpenAI's plan to restructure the company into a for-profit enterprise.
SoftBank continues to increase its investment
SoftBank's investment in OpenAI is not the first time. Prior to this new investment, SoftBank had already invested $500 million in OpenAI's previous round of funding last month.
According to insiders, this transaction was driven by billionaire and SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who has been seeking to acquire more shares in OpenAI to deepen SoftBank's presence in the field of artificial intelligence.
Sun Zhengyi's obsession with artificial intelligence is not accidental. He has repeatedly stated in public that artificial intelligence will be the core driving force for future technological development, and SoftBank is actively preparing "billions of dollars" in funding to make the "next big move" in the field of artificial intelligence.
SoftBank has invested in tech giants such as Apple, Qualcomm, Arm, and Alibaba. This continued investment in OpenAI is undoubtedly an important step for SoftBank in the field of artificial intelligence.
SoftBank has recently invested in artificial intelligence startups Glean, Perplexity, and Poolside. SoftBank's two Vision Funds have invested in approximately 470 companies with a total asset value of $160 billion.
The opportunity for employees to cash out has arrived
Synchronized with SoftBank's new investment is OpenAI's tender offer program for employees.
It is reported that the plan allows OpenAI employees and former employees to sell a total of approximately $1.5 billion worth of shares to SoftBank at a price of $210 per share, which is the same as the company's latest round of financing. Employees need to decide whether to participate in this plan before December 24th.
Due to OpenAI's lack of IPO plans in the near future, this plan is undoubtedly a rare opportunity for employees holding restricted shares of the company to cash out. Through a tender offer, the company can provide employees with a certain level of liquidity without going through an IPO, thereby reducing the pressure of going public and maintaining the company's long-term stable development.
The valuation has reached 157 billion US dollars
Since the launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI's valuation has climbed to $157 billion within two years. OpenAI has received approximately $13 billion in funding from Microsoft. It completed its latest round of $6.6 billion financing in October, led by Thrive Capital, with participants including Nvidia, SoftBank, and others.
OpenAI's financing history found in the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily
In addition, OpenAI has also obtained a revolving credit line of $4 billion, bringing its total working capital to over $10 billion.
Last month, OpenAI launched a search feature in its chatbot ChatGPT, allowing it to better compete with search engines such as Google, Microsoft's Bing, and Perplexity.
According to Menlo Ventures, the revenue of the generative artificial intelligence market is expected to exceed $1 trillion within a decade, and commercial spending on generative AI has surged by 500% this year.
However, with the addition of startups such as Anthropic and tech giants like Google, the competition in the generative artificial intelligence market is becoming increasingly fierce, posing significant challenges for OpenAI.
This year, OpenAI is expected to achieve $3.7 billion in revenue and incur a loss of approximately $5 billion. How to maintain a leading position and achieve sustainable profitability in the vast AI market is an important issue that OpenAI needs to address.
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