OpenAI in Talks That Value Company at $150 Billion

OpenAI is in talks to raise about $6.5 billion as part of a deal that would value the company in the range of $150 billion, a nearly $70 billion increase from its valuation nine months ago, according to five people with knowledge of the conversations.

The deal would make the company more valuable than any other private company with the exception of ByteDance, the maker the video-sharing app TikTok.

As recently as last week, OpenAI was looking to raise about $1 billion at a $100 billion valuation.

The new funding round would be led by the investment firm Thrive Capital, which has previously invested in OpenAI. The tech giants Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft have also been part of the discussions, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the discussions.

Bloomberg reported earlier on the new valuation talks.

In late 2022, OpenAI started the artificial intelligence boom with the release of its online chatbot, ChatGPT, inciting a global surge in funding for start-ups that built similar technology. Interest in such companies dropped this summer as a series of prominent companies all but disappeared into wealthier and more powerful A.I. companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

OpenAI has also struggled to repair its reputation after four board members unexpectedly fired the chief executive, Sam Altman, in late 2023. Since his reinstatement just five days after he was forced out, the company has lost several high-profile employees, including the chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever.

In that same period, the company, which has more than 1,700 employees, has added over 1,000 new workers and released increasingly powerful versions of ChatGPT and similar technologies, including systems that generate images and videos.

Mr. Altman, who is admired by peers in Silicon Valley for his fund-raising ability, has strategically built investor enthusiasm for opportunities to purchase stakes in OpenAI. His strategy has been to sell existing shares in a so-called tender offer once a year, which benefits the company’s employees, while later complementing that with a traditional funding round to support OpenAI’s business, a person familiar with Mr. Altman’s approach said.

Last year, as he wrapped up a tender offer that valued the company at more than $80 billion, he was already telling investors that he planned to raise money to value it at $100 billion.

(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December for copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems.)

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.