OpenAI Reportedly Slated for $500 Million SoftBank Investment

Japan’s SoftBank is reportedly planning to invest in OpenAI’s multi-billion dollar funding round.

The $500 million investment would come from the bank’s Vision Fund, The Information reported Monday (Sept. 30), citing a source familiar with the matter.

The news follows recent reports that OpenAI was in talks to raise $6.5 billion in a funding round that would bring the company’s valuation to $150 billion. Microsoft, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup’s biggest backer, is slated to take part.

This weekend also saw a pair of reports dealing with the funding round, including one from the New York Times citing documents OpenAI has been sharing with investors, showing the company’s revenues up 1,700% since last year.

However, the same documents show that the company expects to lose roughly $5 billion this year after paying for operational costs, salaries and overhead.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had stepped back from plans to take part in the funding round.

As PYMNTS wrote last week, OpenAI’s fundraising plan brings about a new era for the commercialization of artificial intelligence, one that has the potential to reshape whole industries while leading to a battle for market dominance.

The company’s updated valuation, which doesn’t take into account the funds being raised, marks a leap from the $86 billion figure cemented during OpenAI’s tender offer earlier in the year. This financing round, if successful, would seal OpenAI’s status as one of the world’s most valuable startups and usher in a seismic shift in the AI space.

“We’re seeing a consolidation of capital around clear winners in the general LLM [large language model] space — OpenAI, Perplexity, Mistral, LLaMA,” Hannah Chelkowski, co-founder and general partner at Blank Ventures, told PYMNTS. “This funding round further cements OpenAI’s position as a leader in this space.”

Assuming this sea change happens, it could have wide-ranging commercial implications for businesses in a variety of industries.

“Companies successfully leveraging OpenAI’s technology may gain substantial competitive advantages, potentially disrupting traditional business models and reshaping entire markets,” PYMNTS wrote. “Observers say the AI fundraising effort could trigger a surge in AI-powered products and services across a range of sectors.”

For example, retailers could offer more sophisticated chatbots and personalized shopping experiences, while financial institutions could update their fraud detection measures.