OpenAI to raise $40 billion in SoftBank-led round to boost AI efforts

March 31 (Reuters) - OpenAI said on Monday it would raise up to $40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank Group at a $300 billion valuation to advance AI research, expand computational infrastructure and enhance its tools.

The Japanese tech investment group said it has agreed to fund OpenAI with $10 billion in mid-April and an additional $30 billion in December, contingent on the AI firm transitioning to for-profit by the end of the year.

SoftBank plans to syndicate out $10 billion of its total investment to other co-investors it did not name. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that the remainder of the funding would come from Microsoft ( MSFT ), Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital and Thrive Capital.

If OpenAI's restructuring fails, SoftBank said its total investment amount in the round would drop to $20 billion.

OpenAI said it looks to deliver increasingly powerful tools for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week.

Investor enthusiasm for the artificial intelligence sector has surged significantly in recent years, driven by the widespread adoption of chatbots and the emergence of sophisticated AI agents.

Enterprises have integrated AI solutions to streamline their operations and enhance customer experiences, while venture capital firms compete to back promising AI startups.

San Francisco-based OpenAI had closed a $6.6 billion funding round in October, which valued the company at $157 billion. The new funding round would nearly double the valuation of the AI startup.

"OpenAI has very ambitious plans on many fronts and needs a lot of capital to achieve these goals," D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Gil Luria said.

"The list of investors wanting to support that scope has shrunk and may be largely limited to SoftBank, which itself may not have the necessary capital."

SoftBank plans to finance the first $10 billion through borrowings from Mizuho Bank and other financial firms.

OpenAI is partnering with SoftBank and Oracle to establish a network of data centers under the $500-billion Stargate project, aimed at powering AI workloads in the U.S.

"AI is a defining force shaping humanity's future. Our expanded partnership with OpenAI accelerates our shared vision to unlock its full potential," said Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group.

Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI also plans to revamp its structure, saying it would create a public benefit corporation to attract more investment and resources while balancing shareholder interests with public benefits.

With the latest funding, OpenAI will join the ranks of the most valuable private companies such as SpaceX, China's ByteDance and Stripe.

U.S. law firm Morrison Foerster advised SoftBank. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico and Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Alan Barona and Savio D'Souza)