San Francisco, CA – April 1, 2025 — OpenAI on Monday announced it has secured a monumental $40 billion in funding, marking the largest private tech financing round in history, and valuing the ChatGPT-maker at an astounding $300 billion, including the newly raised capital.
According to PitchBook, this round is nearly three times larger than any previous private tech funding round, with the prior record held by Ant Group’s $14 billion raise in 2018.
SoftBank Leads with $30 Billion; Microsoft, Oracle, and Others Join In
The funding round is led by Japan’s SoftBank, which is contributing $30 billion, and is joined by a syndicate of investors, including core backer Microsoft, as well as Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive Capital.
OpenAI stated in a blog post that the new capital will be used to “push the frontiers of AI research” and scale its compute infrastructure. Approximately $18 billion of the funding is expected to be allocated toward Stargate, a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle, which was announced earlier this year by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Initial funding of $10 billion will be deployed immediately, with the remaining $30 billion expected to come in by the end of 2025. However, SoftBank disclosed that the total investment could be reduced to $20 billion if OpenAI fails to restructure into a for-profit entity by December 31, 2025.
Restructuring Challenges and Legal Hurdles
OpenAI currently operates under a hybrid capped-profit model, with a nonprofit parent entity maintaining control. A full conversion to a for-profit structure would require approval from stakeholders, including Microsoft and the California Attorney General. The restructuring has also been legally contested by Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI.
The company’s venture backers currently hold convertible notes, which are expected to turn into equity upon successful restructuring.
Riding the Wave of Generative AI Growth
With this raise, OpenAI now joins the ranks of the world’s most valuable private companies, tied with ByteDance (parent of TikTok) and second only to SpaceX, which is valued at $350 billion, according to CB Insights.
OpenAI’s user base has seen explosive growth, with ChatGPT reaching 500 million weekly users, up from 400 million just last month. CEO Sam Altman noted on X (formerly Twitter) that while ChatGPT initially gained one million users in five days, it now adds “one million users in the last hour.”
The company also expects its revenue to triple to $12.7 billion by the end of 2025.
Leadership Changes and IPO Speculations
In a recent C-suite shakeup, Altman will now focus more on research and product innovation, while COO Brad Lightcap takes over day-to-day operations and business strategy.
Meanwhile, speculation over an eventual OpenAI IPO continues to grow. Mark Klein, CEO of SuRo Capital and an investor in OpenAI, hinted during a recent earnings call that OpenAI is expected to go public “at some point in time.”
The news follows the underwhelming debut of CoreWeave, the first pure-play AI company to go public. After cutting its IPO price, CoreWeave’s stock remained flat on its first day and dropped over 7% on Monday.
With the generative AI market expected to surpass $1 trillion in revenue within a decade, OpenAI’s record-setting raise signals heightened investor confidence in its leadership and vision to stay ahead in the AI arms race, competing against giants like Google, Amazon, Anthropic, and Perplexity.
