ISLAMABAD: The deal values OpenAI at over 80 billion dollars, according to The New York Times sources familiar with the matter.
The deal is a tender offer by venture capital firm Thrive Capital that will enable current shareholders, most of whom are employees, to sell their shares. This is unlike normal funding rounds where the company raises new capital but, in this case, it allows employees to sell their stock, according to Reuters.
OpenAI has not commented publicly on the development yet and Reuters could not get an immediate response 1 of the company.
A similar deal was made in early 2023, when Thrive Capital, along with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and K2 Global, purchased shares in a different tender offer, valuing OpenAI at around 29 billion dollars at that point.
The company has seen a rocket-like rise and international interest after the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, which caused a surge of interest in artificial intelligence and its possible uses. Since that time, companies across the globe have been trying to find ways to use generative AI tools.
Its Chief Executive Sam Altman is also said to be pursuing investment in a new semiconductor business, to help increase global chip-making capacity, which is seen as essential to support future breakthroughs in AI technologies.
