OpenAI has completed funding of 1.2 trillion yen, possibly negotiating conditions with Microsoft after achieving AGI.

## Part of the 40 billion Dollar funding

OpenAI, known for the generative AI (artificial intelligence) ChatGPT, has secured $8.3 billion (approximately ¥1.2 trillion) in new funding in its latest investment round. This is part of a $40 billion (approximately ¥6 trillion) funding effort, as reported by U.S. CNBC and others.

Dragonia led with $2.8 billion (approximately ¥410 billion), with major investors such as Blackstone, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz also participating. This funding round was completed earlier than scheduled, with a 5x oversubscription rate.

OpenAI announced in April that it plans to raise 40 billion Dollar in funding within this year. SoftBank is expected to be the largest investor and has promised to contribute 30 billion Dollar (approximately 4.4 trillion yen) by the end of the year.

The funding is expected to be used for advancing AI research and expanding computing infrastructure. Approximately 18 billion Dollar (about 2.7 trillion yen) is expected to be allocated to the joint venture "Stargate" of SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle.

According to information reported by DealBook from sources, OpenAI's annual operating revenue has surged from $10 billion in June to $13 billion (approximately ¥1.9 trillion) now, and it is projected to exceed $20 billion (approximately ¥3 trillion) by the end of the year.

Annual recurring revenue refers to

Annual recurring revenue (ARR) in English refers to the revenue that is consistently and continuously generated over the course of a year.

It is also reported that the number of paid business users of ChatGPT has increased from 3 million a few months ago to 5 million now.

Discussion with Microsoft

According to a report by Bloomberg on July 29, citing sources, Microsoft and OpenAI are said to be negotiating conditions that would allow Microsoft to use OpenAI's latest models even after OpenAI achieves its goal of "Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)."

OpenAI initially set out with the goal of creating AGI that is not dominated by major IT companies. The company defines AGI as "advanced autonomous systems that surpass humans in economically the most valuable tasks."

Under the current contract, Microsoft will lose some rights regarding OpenAI's technology at the point when OpenAI achieves AGI.

Microsoft has invested approximately 13.75 billion Dollars (about 2 trillion yen) in OpenAI and also holds the company's intellectual property rights.

If the discussions between the two companies materialize, it is expected that a significant hurdle will be removed for OpenAI in its pursuit of becoming a profit-oriented enterprise. SoftBank has stated that if OpenAI is not restructured into a profit-oriented company by the end of 2025, it may reduce its investment amount.

On the other hand, OpenAI began considering a transition to a for-profit company earlier this year, but faced significant backlash. Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with Mr. Altman and others, has also filed a lawsuit to prevent the transition.

Mr. Musk had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, stating that as of last year, the contract was originally to establish "AI for the benefit of humanity."

The language model GPT-4 of 2023 is being viewed critically for being released essentially as a Microsoft product and used for financial gain.