OpenAIthe company is responsible chatgptannounced this Wednesday that it had closed a deal to raise $6,600 million (5,973 million euros). financingA period that consolidates its leading position artificial intelligence (AI) and he shoots him assessment Until reaching 157,000 million dollars (142,000 million euros).
This is the biggest operation of venture capital In history, more than $6 billion was raised at the beginning of the year xainew company Aye from tech tycoon Elon MuskFurthermore, with this valuation, OpenAI strengthens its position third largest start up (emerging company) in the worldbehind only the Chinese ByteDanceowner of tiktokand aerospace manufacturers spacexEven in the hands of the richest man on the planet.
This new round of financing is led by venture capital firm develop capital -investor property joshua kushnerJared Kushner’s son-in-law, brother of Donald Trump– and backed by tech industry giants like Microsoft -which has already invested up to 13,000 million dollars-, NVIDIAbackground Khosla VenturesEmirati investment firm MGX or Japanese multinational softbankAlthough after all it was part of the conversation Apple Has not participated in the operation. Accordingly, the bitten apple giant has also abandoned its plans to get an observer role on OpenAI’s board of directors bloomberg,
inner turmoil
OpenAI’s huge funding round comes just a week after it confirmed it was working on a restructuring of its business that will allow it to operate. profit motivea strategy that has allowed it to attract large investorsApart from this, the CEO of the company will greatly benefit from this change. Sam AltmanWhich could take a 7% stake in the company responsible for ChatGPT, shares that could be worth around $10.5 billion.
Only 10% of companies in Spain have integrated artificial intelligence into their businessHowever, this change in its corporate model has also drawn criticism from those who believe that prioritizing benefits will lead to more risk in the development of AI, something that the company denies. Probably this has also led to the migration of many of its employees. last week it was Mira MuratiBy then OpenAI’s technology director, who announced his resignation, a goodbye that was joined by two senior managers in charge of the research team.
OpenAI faces months of internal turmoil. In November 2023, the startup’s board of directors surprised Altman by accusing him of hiding information. Its co-founder and until then chief scientist, Ilya SutskeverParticipated in those maneuvers. However, Soap Opera of the Year silicon Valley This ended five days later with Altman consolidating his power as head of OpenAI and a change in the board of directors, which tried to eliminate him. In May, Sutskever left the company and it disbanded the AI ​​risk-focused team he led.
High cost of AI
The historic size of this funding round also reflects its high cost Generative AIFor ChatGPT to be able to answer user questions, it must first be trained with millions of extracted data. InternetA process that requires immense computational power. In form of technology on which these systems are based is becoming increasingly complex and also absorbs large amounts of energy And water. As it turns out, the use of Microsoft servers alone and the training of these models could cost about $7 billion per year Information,
“The new funding will allow us to double down on our leadership in cutting-edge AI research, increase computing power, and continue creating tools that help people solve tough problems,” the company said.
Currently, ChatGPT has 250 million weekly active users. However, OpenAI only makes money from 11 million Membership Those who pay to use its premium version ApplicationThe company’s revenues are growing, projected to reach $3.7 billion by 2024. However, its business is not yet strong enough to present green numbers. This year it is estimated to suffer a loss of around Rs 5000 crore.
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