OpenAI seeks $40 billion in new fundraising round

OpenAI is planning to raise $40 billion in a new funding, which could elevate its valuation to an astonishing $430 billion.

A report published in Wall Street Journal said that Japan’s SoftBank is leading the investment to contribute between $15 billion and $25 billion. It will potentially become the largest financial supporter of the maker of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT.

This announcement triggered concerns by Chinese startup DeepSeek that recently unveiled a powerful Chatbot at a fraction of the cost of its American rivals.

The Financial Times had first reported the Softbank investment.

This planned funding was made just three months after the Sam Altman-owned AI technology firm concluded a previous which pegged its valuation at $157 billion.

The doubling its valuation would be unprecedented in Silicon Valley history. It signals the vast sums required to construct the world-leading AI models from scratch.

OpenAI and SoftBank are part of the Stargate drive that was announced by President Donald Trump with the view to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

The Wall Street Journal report further said that the new funds would partly go to help OpenAI meet its nearly $18 billion commitment to Stargate.