OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, announced on March 31 (local time) that it had raised a total of $122 billion (approximately 184 trillion won) in its latest funding round, which was unveiled last month. As a result, the company’s valuation has reached $852 billion (about 1,284 trillion won). This is an increase of $12 billion from the $110 billion in funding announced last month, making it the largest funding round since OpenAI was founded.

According to Bloomberg News, most of this funding came from three major big tech companies. Amazon invested $50 billion, while Nvidia and SoftBank each contributed $30 billion. However, a significant portion of Amazon’s investment—$35 billion—will only be provided if OpenAI goes public (IPO) or achieves artificial general intelligence (AGI). In addition, venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and D. E. Shaw Ventures, as well as UAE-based AI-focused investment firm MGX, also participated.

OpenAI logo. Reuters Yonhap News Agency

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For the first time, OpenAI raised $3 billion from individual investors through bank channels in this funding round. The company is also set to be included in the exchange-traded fund (ETF) managed by ARK Invest, the asset management firm led by Cathie Wood, who is nicknamed "Donnamu Unni" (Money Tree Sister) in Korea. This is a strategy to enable more investors to participate in OpenAI. The company also announced that it has expanded its bank loan limit to $4.7 billion to secure greater financial flexibility.

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sarah Friar explained that this fundraising "surpasses even the largest IPOs in history," adding that amid growing uncertainty in the public offering market due to factors such as the Iran war, the company has secured the flexibility to invest in computing resources and its AI roadmap. OpenAI had previously announced plans to invest more than $1.4 trillion in physical infrastructure to support its AI software over the next several years.

OpenAI stated it is currently generating monthly revenues of $2 billion, noting that this growth rate is four times faster than what competitors such as Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and Meta achieved at similar stages in their development. The company reported that ChatGPT has more than 900 million weekly active users (WAU) and over 50 million paid subscribers. Currently, corporate clients account for 40% of total revenue, and this share is expected to rise to 50% by the end of the year. Notably, the number of weekly users of the enterprise coding tool Codex has increased fivefold over the past three months, surpassing 2 million. OpenAI also revealed it is building an AI super application that integrates ChatGPT, Codex, and a web browser.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has recently halted development of certain features, including the video generation app Sora, to reduce costs and improve computational efficiency. Industry sources believe this is a strategy to focus on improving financial performance ahead of a potential IPO at the end of this year.