OpenAI’s Value Hits $80 Billion in Thrive Capital Deal: Report

OpenAI’s valuation has soared to $80 billion or more in a recent deal with venture capital firm Thrive Capital, as reported by the New York Times. This marks a nearly threefold increase in value from just nine months ago. The deal involves an existing share sale under a “so-called tender offer” led by Thrive, allowing employees to cash out their shares in the AI company.

This development comes close to 10 months after OpenAI closed a $300 million share sale, valuing it at about $27 billion. With an $80 billion valuation, OpenAI would become the world’s third-highest-valued tech startup, trailing behind ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok ($225 billion), and SpaceX ($150 billion), led by Elon Musk, according to CB Insights data cited by the Times.

Talks about a new deal surfaced last year, with reports suggesting a share sale that could have valued OpenAI at up to $90 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

OpenAI, founded in 2015, has garnered significant investments from various tech companies and investors. Microsoft, for instance, has invested $13 billion in the company, though it doesn’t own any portion of it and is instead “entitled to a share of profit distributions.” Last April, Thrive, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and K2 Global agreed to acquire new shares in OpenAI, pushing its valuation to around $27 billion.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who was ousted from the company last year but reinstated after internal upheaval, has stated that the company has no immediate plans to go public.

In a related development, OpenAI recently unveiled its latest product, Sora, which can generate videos from text prompts. However, this video service is not yet available to the public, and OpenAI is still in the process of implementing “several important safety steps” to address potential issues related to misinformation and bias.