According to sources familiar with the matter, Nvidia, a globally renowned graphics processor manufacturer, is in talks to join artificial intelligence startup OpenAI in a new round of funding. This round of funding is expected to push OpenAI's valuation to a peak of over $100 billion (approximately RMB 709.76 billion).
OpenAI, known for developing the groundbreaking ChatGPT chatbot, is becoming a sought after partner among global tech giants. In addition to Nvidia, it is reported that Apple and Microsoft are also discussing the possibility of participating in this round of financing. If these discussions make progress, it will mean that the top three tech giants with the highest market capitalization will all become strong supporters of OpenAI. Recently, OpenAI revealed that the weekly active users of ChatGPT have exceeded 200 million, and ChatGPT usage has doubled since last year.
Previously, it was reported that this round of financing will be led by venture capital firm Thrive Capital. According to an informed source, Thrive Capital will invest in this round of financing and invest $1 billion. The insider requested anonymity as the relevant details are still confidential.
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The addition of NVIDIA, Apple, and Microsoft will not only bring more resources and financial support to OpenAI, but also further promote the advancement of artificial intelligence technology.
At present, these negotiations are still ongoing, and the final investment results and financing details have not yet been announced to the public.
Earlier this year, OpenAI's valuation was reported to have reached $80 billion, compared to only $29 billion the previous year. If the news is true, OpenAI's valuation may increase by a quarter within six months. Because in February of this year, The New York Times reported that OpenAI's valuation had doubled in less than 10 months, reaching $80 billion, after completing transactions that included venture capital firms and employees.
This round of financing will make OpenAI one of the most valuable startups in the world, highlighting the growing demand for generative artificial intelligence software in the market.
According to reports, its annualized revenue exceeded $2 billion earlier this year. Since the company launched the ChatGPT chatbot at the end of 2022, its performance has grown rapidly and continues to grow as it launches products for businesses and expands into the field of AI generated photos and videos. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the financing negotiations and stated that OpenAI's biggest supporter, Microsoft, will also participate in the investment. Microsoft declined to comment on this. Since 2019, Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI and currently holds a 49% share of the company's profits.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on social media X on August 8th, saying, 'I am fortunate to have collaborated with many great investors.'; The one I highly recommend is Josh.
According to the Daily Economic News on July 25th, foreign media cited undisclosed internal financial data from OpenAI and intelligence from insiders for analysis and evaluation, and believed that OpenAI's losses this year could reach up to $5 billion. The biggest reason for this possible consequence is that this star company, currently valued at $80 billion, is facing the challenge of soaring costs.
According to the analysis, OpenAI's costs are divided into inference costs, training costs, and labor costs. Overall, OpenAI's operating costs this year could reach as high as $8.5 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described his company as "the most capital intensive startup in Silicon Valley history.
In terms of inference costs, as of March, OpenAI has spent nearly $4 billion this year renting Microsoft's server cluster to support the operation of ChatGPT and its underlying large models. It is reported that this cluster is equivalent to 350000 Nvidia A100 chips, of which about 290000 chips provide support for ChatGPT.
In addition, OpenAI's training costs (including payment for data) may soar to $3 billion this year. The size of the server cluster used for training OpenAI models is not yet known, but as of the first quarter of this year, the cluster includes 120000 Nvidia A100. It is reported that OpenAI originally planned to spend about $800 million on training costs this year, but as OpenAI accelerates the training of its latest flagship models, training costs may double this year.
According to foreign media analysis, OpenAI's high cost also lies in the fact that the company provides a free version of ChatGPT, which increases inference costs but does not bring any additional revenue. In addition, the cooperation agreement signed between OpenAI and Apple this year does not involve monetary transactions, and Apple will start integrating ChatGPT into iPhones later this year, which is expected to further increase OpenAI's inference costs.
Despite foreign media reports that OpenAI has recently generated a total monthly revenue of $283 million, which means its annual revenue may range from $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion, depending on its sales in the second half of the year. However, considering the potential cost of $8.5 billion, OpenAI may face a loss of $4 billion to $5 billion.
The Information estimates that OpenAI's losses may exceed $2 billion by 2023. According to previous reports, OpenAI's annualized revenue last year was $1.6 billion ("annualized revenue" refers to taking the previous month's revenue figure and multiplying it by 12 to estimate the total revenue for the year). In June of this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that OpenAI's annualized revenue had grown to $3.4 billion.
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