New financing round could make OpenAI profit-oriented
The ChatGPT makers want to raise around 6.5 billion US dollars in new capital. According to a report, investors such as Nvidia have set conditions for this.
Sam Altmann could be facing a difficult decision.
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OpenAI intends to complete its next financing round in the coming weeks in the form of convertible bonds and with higher profit sharing. According to earlier reports, the company is valued at around 150 billion US dollars. Now 6.5 billion more is to be invested.
However, as the news agency Reuters reports from unnamed sources, the new and existing investors are imposing a condition that, if fulfilled, could fundamentally change the company. Unlike some subsidiaries, OpenAI itself is still managed as a "non-profit", which does not mean that no profits may be made. Rather, in the case of OpenAI, investors only receive a maximum of 100 times their invested money as profit. Any amount above this remains with the company. This makes the investment less attractive for pure speculation, and the repeatedly assumed IPO of OpenAI is also not in sight.
It all depends on Sam Altmann
If the company were to change this rule, it would need the approval of its board of directors, in which founder Sam Altmann now calls the shots. He was dismissed at short notice in November 2023 after a dispute arose over the responsible use of AI. The employees rebelled against this, and in March 2024 Altmann returned with three new board members. His word on the direction of OpenAI is therefore also likely to be decisive when it comes to financing.
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No matter how the new financing round is structured: OpenAI is in constant need of fresh money, even though sales are continuing to rise. The company continues to make a loss, as the development of new AI models is becoming increasingly expensive. Just this week, the company presented the new "o1-Preview" and "o1-mini" models, which, among other things, better understand complex scientific problems. Altmann has also been thinking aloud about building its own chip factories.
Existing and new investors want to continue to invest money in the company, whose ChatGPT also played a major role this week at the presentation of the new iPhones with "Apple Intelligence". Both Apple and the market leader for chips for training AI models, Nvidia, are said to be among the new investors, while Microsoft is also expected to increase its existing stake. Reuters' sources expect a decision to be made within the next two weeks.
(nie)
