OpenAI is in talks to raise as much as US$40 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank Group Corp, according to people familiar with the matter.
The ChatGPT maker is in discussions to raise funds at a pre-money valuation of US$260 billion, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private information. OpenAI was valued at US$157 billion in October.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported some of the funding details. OpenAI declined to comment. SoftBank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
OpenAI and other top AI companies have committed to spending billions on data, talent and physical infrastructure to support the development of more advanced AI systems. That spending spree has been called into question in recent days after Chinese upstart DeepSeek released a competitive model that it claims to have developed for a small fraction of the cost.
Bloomberg News previously reported that SoftBank is considering putting between US$15 billion and US$25 billion into OpenAI, a deal that would potentially make it the AI startup’s biggest backer.
Last week, OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle announced a US$100 billion joint venture to invest in data centres and other infrastructure projects around the US. The venture is intended to help OpenAI build more advanced AI models.
