OpenAI said to be in talks to raise $40B at a $340B valuation

OpenAI may have billions of dollars in the bank. But it’s gearing up to raise billions more, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Per The WSJ, OpenAI is in talks to secure up to $40 billion in a funding round that would value the startup at $340 billion. SoftBank would lead the round, pouring between $15 billion to $25 billion into the ChatGPT maker, according to The WSJ.

Should OpenAI successfully close the round, it’d be a remarkable feat for the startup, which was valued at $157 billion in October. The WSJ says that OpenAI would use the capital to fund its money-losing business operations and fulfill its commitment to Stargate, its ambitious project to build AI data centers across the U.S.

In 2024, OpenAI reportedly lost around $5 billion against revenues of $3.7 billion. The losses could mount. In conjunction with partners including SoftBank, OpenAI aims to contribute billions of dollars to Stargate to start.