According to sources familiar with the matter, OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, is reportedly engaged in discussions to sell shares held by current employees at an $86 billion valuation.
This development follows a report from the Wall Street Journal last month, which stated that OpenAI, with backing from Microsoft, was aiming for a valuation of approximately $90 billion in a share sale.
ChatGPT, a chatbot that can generate human-like responses based on user prompts, has helped AI’s popularity erupt and has fueled a meteoric rise in the valuation of San Francisco-based OpenAI. Earlier this year, the company made a $300 million share sale at a valuation of $30 billion.
OpenAI is negotiating a tender offer with potential investors, Bloomberg reported, adding that the firm still needs to finalize allocations and terms could still change.
Microsoft holds a substantial stake in OpenAI after it invested about $10 billion earlier this year and helped them with a supercomputer to help run their simulations. Before the $10 billion investment, Google had invested about $1 billion in OpenAI.
