OpenAI’s New Funding Round Could Exceed $100 Billion

The ChatGPT creator is close to concluding the initial phase of a new round of funding that is likely to take in upwards of $100 billion, Bloomberg News reported late Wednesday (Feb. 18), citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report characterizes this as a record-breaking deal that would give OpenAI more capital to develop its artificial intelligence (AI) tools as it prepares to make a multi-trillion dollar investment in infrastructure projects. Bloomberg notes that the $850-plus billion figure is higher than the $830 billion initially anticipated.

According to the report, the sources said the first portion of the funding round will mostly come from strategic investors such as Amazon, SoftBank, Nvidia and Microsoft.

Past reports have said Amazon was considering an investment of up to $50 billion in OpenAI, with SoftBank and Nvidia eyeing contributions of $30 billion and $20 billion, respectively. One of the sources told Bloomberg that, as part of their partnership, OpenAI is expected to expand its usage of Amazon’s chips and cloud services.

In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote Thursday (Feb. 19) about the changing phase of enterprise investment in the technology.

“Since artificial intelligence first went mainstream, the innovation has been framed as having an immediate impact,” that report said. “As a result, the goals for enterprise buyers have centered around productivity gains that happen upon implementation; quick, cost-saving wins that justify experimentation; and other early, easy victories.”

However, PYMNTS Intelligence’s February installment of The Enterprise AI Benchmark Report shows that inside corporate finance functions, a more deliberate narrative around AI’s potential is taking shape as the technology itself evolves.

The report is based on surveys of 60 chief financial officers at American companies generating at least $1 billion in revenue in the last year. It found they are reconfiguring expectations and treating generative AI “not as a fast-return automation tool but as a long-duration transformation akin to the adoption of cloud computing or enterprise resource planning systems.”

Expected timelines for full AI integration have nearly doubled as companies begin to realize the complexity of scaling the tech across systems and controls, with finance chiefs now evaluating ROI across a portfolio of outcomes (customer experience, margins, productivity) rather than a single financial metric like headcount.

“The ongoing strategic question today has shifted from whether generative AI works to whether organizations can absorb it responsibly, integrate it securely and govern it effectively,” PYMNTS wrote.