The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is attempting to raise $40 billion in a new round of funding. This would place the startup at an astounding $340 billion in value.
Japan’s SoftBank is leading the investment round, which involves investing $15-25 billion in the transaction. This investment would establish SoftBank as ChatGPT’s largest financial backer.
The reports were released after DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, caused a market shock this week by introducing a potent new chatbot developed at a fraction of the cost of its US competitors.
The Financial Times was the first to report on the Softbank investment.
The investment strategy was announced three months after OpenAI completed its most recent funding round, which valued the company at $157 billion.
Doubling its valuation would mark an unprecedented milestone in Silicon Valley’s history. This would reflect the considerable resources needed to develop top-tier AI models from scratch, with a large share of the funding for advanced computing and infrastructure.
SoftBank’s Strategic Role in OpenAI’s Expansion and Stargate Initiative
US President Donald Trump has announced the Stargate initiative, which aims to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. SoftBank and OpenAI are among the companies involved in this initiative.
The Journal stated that the new funds would be partially allocated to assist OpenAI in fulfilling its approximately $18 billion commitment to Stargate.
According to the Financial Times, the Japanese company’s proposed investment would be in addition to its existing commitment of over $15 billion to Stargate, which cited individuals with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
“Ultimately, the Japanese company could spend more than $40bn on its partnership with OpenAI,” according to the investigation.
At that moment, AFP did not receive a response from SoftBank, and OpenAI also did not quickly respond to the request for comment.
On Thursday, Softbank’s shares increased by 3% in Tokyo trading.
Despite the company’s spectacularly successful early wagers on Yahoo! and Alibaba in the 1990s, founded by Japanese tycoon Masayoshi Son, some of its other investments have failed.
Son, an early Trump supporter, has sought to transition into AI, securing substantial funding from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and other sources, with SoftBank’s investment in Arm, a semiconductor designer.
Elon Musk has publicly expressed his disdain for Stargate, stating on X this month that the primary investors “do not actually have the money.”
The world’s wealthiest individual was an early investor in OpenAI and has been embroiled in a long-standing dispute with its inventor, Sam Altman, who characterized the Tesla founder’s remarks as “misguided.”
