OpenAI valued at over $80 billion, plans to sell shares, igniting another investment frenzy in the AI sector.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is in discussions with investors regarding the sale of stocks, with the valuation of this AI startup behind ChatGPT expected to be between $80 billion to $90 billion, roughly three times what it was earlier this year. This transaction will allow employees to sell existing stocks rather than the company issuing new shares to raise additional funds, which will also bring substantial gains for Microsoft and fuel another wave of investment in the AI sector.

OpenAI Emerges as One of the World's Most Valuable Startups

According to sources, the startup backed 49% by Microsoft has informed investors that it expects to generate $1 billion in revenue this year and create revenues in the tens of billions by 2024. OpenAI is in discussions with investors about a stock sale that would allow employees to sell existing shares rather than the company issuing new shares to raise additional funds, although the terms may change.

In November last year, OpenAI released ChatGPT, sparking the current artificial intelligence craze in Silicon Valley. While the basic version of the app is free, the company generates revenue by charging individuals for more powerful paid versions and licensing the large language models behind the AI bot to enterprises.

With a valuation of over $80 billion, OpenAI is set to become one of the world's most valuable startups, second only to Elon Musk's SpaceX and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok.

This Deal Will Bring Microsoft Substantial Book Profits

Microsoft announced in January that it would inject billions of dollars into OpenAI, with the investment being spread over several years to expand the collaboration between the two parties. This is Microsoft's third investment in OpenAI, with the first being in 2019 and the most recent in 2021. Microsoft currently holds a 49% stake in OpenAI.

Former OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman had previously stated that he had no plans to take OpenAI public or sell it, which means Microsoft may not be able to purchase additional shares in this deal to increase its stake to over 50%. Nevertheless, this deal will immediately bring substantial profits to Microsoft's books. When Microsoft invested in January, OpenAI's valuation was less than $30 billion, but it has since nearly tripled.

Tech Giants Rush In, Igniting Another Investment Boom in AI Field

Since the emergence of ChatGPT last year, tech giants have been rushing into the AI field. Google has introduced the conversational AI service Bard and is currently preparing a multimodal AI model called Gemini that can accept various forms of input such as text, images, and sound. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is also developing an open-source model that is significantly more powerful than the previously released Llama 2 model.

However, ChatGPT continues to innovate, recently announcing the launch of voice conversation and image upload features! It seems that the wave of AI will continue to sweep through for years to come, changing the way humans live! The OpenAI deal is also expected to ignite another investment boom in the AI field.