OpenAI’s Valuation Reportedly Set To Hit At Least $80B; China-Based Competitor Announces $342M In Investments

Chris Metinko

OpenAI, the startup behind the artificial intelligence tools ChatGPT and DALL-E, will see its valuation jump at least 175% since its $300 million raise in the spring, thanks to a tender offer of employee stock.

Per a report in The Information, Thrive Capital will lead a deal to buy the OpenAI shares at a price that will value the artificial intelligence giant at at least $80 billion.

The deal was first reported late last month and makes OpenAI one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

In April, OpenAI picked up about $300 million from the likes of Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of around $29 billion.

The new secondary deal means that in about six months OpenAI’s value jumped 2.75x and values it at around 60x its annualized revenue, per a report.

More AI

OpenAI is not the AI company in the headlines.

China-based Zhipu AI, a startup creating AI models and a Chinese competitor to OpenAI, announced that so far this year it has raised $342 million from backers like Alibaba and Tencent.

Other investors in the company include Hillhouse and Xiaomi.

Zhipu released a generative AI chatbot in August based on its own models, and it is hoped by some the company can be the country’s version of OpenAi and Anthropic to help lead an AI boom in China.

Illustration: Dom Guzman