OpenAI's latest funding round has raised over 100 billion dollars! Its valuation is aiming for 850 billion dollars!

It is reported that this financing of hundreds of billions of dollars will not be completed in a single stage, but will be advanced in two steps, and is currently in the closing stage of the first stage. The core source of funds for the first stage comes from the "celebrity group" of strategic investors consisting of the world's top technology companies, among which Amazon, SoftBank Group, NVIDIA, and Microsoft, the four giants, have become the absolute main force. If all parties contribute according to the maximum amount previously discussed, the total amount of contributions will accurately approach the $100 billion mark.

Specifically, Amazon, known as the "money powerhouse", plans to invest a massive $50 billion, making it the most likely largest investor in this round of financing. In exchange, OpenAI is expected to expand its use of Amazon's self-developed chips and cloud computing services, deepening the binding between the two parties at the level of computing infrastructure, achieving a win-win situation of "money for ecosystem"; SoftBank, as the leading investor, plans to inject $30 billion, disbursed in three phases of $10 billion each, to continuously support OpenAI's research and development progress. As of December last year, SoftBank had held about 11% of OpenAI's shares, and this additional investment further consolidates the deep partnership between the two parties. Affected by this news, SoftBank's stock price rose by up to 4% in the Tokyo stock market on Thursday morning; NVIDIA, as OpenAI's core chip supplier, plans to invest about $20 billion, locking in the huge future demand for chips through capital binding, achieving a two-way empowerment of "technology + capital"; while Microsoft, as OpenAI's long-term partner, although relatively restrained in its investment, also plans to invest several billion dollars to stabilize the alliance between the two parties in areas such as AI model research and development and scenario implementation.

In terms of valuation, the pre-money valuation of this financing has been set at $730 billion. If the $100 billion financing is successfully secured, the post-money valuation will surpass $850 billion, higher than the previous market expectation of $830 billion. In just half a year, OpenAI's valuation has jumped by $120 billion, representing an astonishing increase. This valuation level far exceeds traditional tech giants such as Tesla and Meta, and is second only to Apple and Microsoft. Even compared to its AI peers during the same period, it has formed a crushing advantage - Anthropic, after completing $30 billion in financing during the same period, had a valuation of only $380 billion, less than half of OpenAI's, which is sufficient to show the high recognition of capital for OpenAI's technological strength and development prospects.

It is worth noting that this financing is OpenAI's first since completing its corporate restructuring last autumn. After the restructuring, it obtained the qualification to issue standard equity, which is widely regarded within the industry as a crucial step towards an IPO. According to some sources, OpenAI could initiate the listing process as early as the fourth quarter of 2026. The smooth progress of this hundred-billion-dollar financing will pave the way for its IPO.

This billion-dollar financing extravaganza is not only crucial for the development of OpenAI itself, but also poised to profoundly influence the global AI industry landscape, triggering a series of chain reactions. From an industry competition perspective, OpenAI's capital siphon effect will further exacerbate the "Matthew effect" within the industry, widening the gap between leading AI enterprises and small and medium-sized players. Many small and medium-sized manufacturers lacking sufficient strength may be eliminated from the market, pushing the "involution threshold" of the AI industry to a new height. Future industry competition will focus on the comprehensive competition of technological research and development, computing power reserves, and capital strength.