OpenAI Seeks Up to $40 Billion in Funding at $340 Billion Valuation

OpenAI is in discussions to raise up to $40 billion in a new funding round, valuing the startup at $340 billion, according to CNBC citing sources. 

The round will be led by SoftBank, which plans to invest between $15 billion and $25 billion, becoming the largest investor in Sam Altman’s firm. Similar information was previously reported by FT.

Some of the funds may be directed towards the Stargate project—a joint venture announced by Donald Trump involving SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle, which aims to invest $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure over four years.

In early October, OpenAI completed another funding round at a valuation of $157 billion. The startup spends billions of dollars on training and supporting AI models, remaining unprofitable. 

The recent release of the purportedly cheap and efficient R1 neural network by Chinese company DeepSeek has raised questions about the viability of billion-dollar investments in AI.

However, the Chinese firm has been suspected of data theft from OpenAI. The American startup and Microsoft have launched an investigation.

OpenAI’s Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil emphasized that the more computations are applied, the more intelligent the neural network becomes. He promised to soon unveil a new model that will significantly outperform existing market products. 

Earlier, Altman described the much-discussed AI model DeepSeek-R1 as “impressive” and vowed to surpass it. 

In January, his startup introduced its own AI agent “Operator,” capable of performing tasks on the internet on behalf of the user.