SoftBank invests up to $ 40 billion in Openai – $ 15 billion more than expected

The Japanese SoftBank conglomerate is close to completing the investigation transaction up to $ 40 billion in the Openai AI-Startap in preliminary assessment of its market value of $ 260 billion, CNBC writes. As expected, part of these funds will be used by OpenAi to finance Stargate – a joint venture founded by SoftBank, Openai and Oracle.

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According to CNBC, the first tranche will go to the Openai billing account this spring, and from 12 to 24 months to transfer the entire amount. The size of investment is $ 15 million more than the initial amount of investment, which was discussed at the negotiations of companies a week ago.

According to the New York Times, several more investors who will provide a quarter of the total amount are also involved in the funding round. The transaction shows that investors are still optimistic about the leaders of the AI ​​market, such as Openai, despite the fall of their shares after the announcement of the Chinese company Deepseek of its AI Models, the development of which was much cheaper than American technological giants spent on their models .

Thanks to the new financing of OpenAi, it will become one of the most expensive private companies in the world, along with the Aerospace company SpaceX and ByTedance, which owns Tiktok, the New York Times, noted.

Earlier this week, SoftBank and Openai announced the creation of a joint enterprise SB Openai Japan in Japan to provide artificial intelligence services to corporate clients in the country. At the same time, the companies included in SoftBank will pay OpenAi $ 3 billion annually for the use of its AI-technologies.