OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it has been valued at $852 billion following the closure of a $122 billion funding round, significantly exceeding initial projections.
The funding round comes amid rising computing costs and ongoing questions about whether AI companies can generate enough revenue to cover rapidly growing expenses.
“The capital being deployed today is helping build the infrastructure layer for intelligence itself,” OpenAI said in a blog post. “Over time, that value will flow back into the economy, to companies, to communities, and increasingly to individuals.”
The San Francisco-based company reported a monthly revenue rate of $2 billion, which it says is growing quickly.
The round attracted a diverse array of partners, including Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Softbank. Remarkably, some $3 billion was reportedly raised from individual investors.
ChatGPT remains the top consumer AI tool, boasting more than 900 million weekly active users and approximately 50 million subscribers. Use of ChatGPT’s online search engine has tripled in the past year, highlighting the growing role of AI in daily life.
“These are not just growth milestones — they show that frontier AI is becoming part of everyday life for people around the world,” OpenAI stated.
In February, OpenAI began rolling out advertising for its non-premium users to increase revenue streams. The company also announced plans to build a “superapp” combining ChatGPT, internet browsing, the Codex coding tool, and agentic capabilities that allow digital assistants to independently manage tasks.
The massive funding round arrives amid anticipation that OpenAI may go public later this year as competition in the AI sector intensifies.
Arch-rival Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees, continues to gain traction with its Claude AI models and earlier secured a $30 billion funding round. Other competitors include Google’s Gemini AI and Elon Musk’s xAI, both attracting users and investment.
