OpenAI Valuation at $29 Billion While In Talks of Selling Existing Shares in a Tender Offer
Per WSJ
OpenAI reached new levels of mainstream popularity among students and many other users on the internet as an AI-writing assistant that could crank up thousands of words in a matter of seconds. While certain features like its Code completion or Image generation are still in beta mode, the company is already talking about selling existing shares in a tender offer.
OpenAI went viral for its ChatGPT chatbot, a smart way to communicate with AI to get answers, outlines, or conversations. Now, while the company is in talks, its valuation is estimated at around $29 billion.
Microsoft previously invested $1 billion in OpenAI, which resulted in the company's partnership to help develop hardware and software within Microsoft Azure.
The new tender will double OpenAI's previous valuation of just $14 billion. So far, the company has only generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue through AI software sales to developers.
This would make the company one of the most valuable US startups. This is despite the company not yet reporting outstanding revenue.
Two major venture-capital firms that are in talks of purchasing the shares are Founders Fund and Thrive Capital. OpenAI share sales could result in at least a $300 million tender, where existing shareholders can sell their shares to interested investors.
Despite its wide-range use, the report notes that some investors are still skeptical about whether this technology can generate meaningful revenue. The terms are still subject to change, and no final deal has been struct.
Although the company has not yet generated much revenue, Microsoft has announced that it will add OpenAI to a new version of its Bing search engine. This would potentially make the AI more accessible through Microsoft's search engine, which competes against Google.
Other early investors in the company include Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Twitter, and Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder.
See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.
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