OpenAI Receives $4B Credit Line

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Facts

  • ChatGPT-creator OpenAI has received a $4B revolving credit line. This is on top of the $6.6B funding round it closed a day prior, bringing the company's reported liquidity to over $10B.[1][2]
  • OpenAI — which counts JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Santander, Wells Fargo, SMBC, UBS, and HSBC among its recent investors — has the option for an additional $2B on top of the $4B over three years.[2][3]
  • The company is now valued at an estimated $157B, with its latest investment round being used to buy computing power from companies, including Microsoft, to develop its products.[4][5]
  • OpenAI expressed its appreciation to investors — which includes Tiger Global Management, Cathie Wood's Ark, Nvidia, Fidelity, and United Arab Emirates government-backed firm MGX.[6][7]
  • OpenAI increased its revenue to $300M last month, up 1,700% from the beginning of 2023. Its sales are expected to jump from $3.7B this year to $11.6B next year.[2]
  • However, despite tripling its user base to 350M people, OpenAI is also expected to lose over $11B next year. This also comes as the company has lost key executives and researchers while it's shifting from nonprofit to for-profit status.[4][2]

Sources: [1]Reuters, [2]CNBC, [3]Engadget, [4]New York Times, [5]Wsj (a), [6]Wsj (b) and [7]Business Insider.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Wsj. OpenAI has gone through some tumultuous times, but it's still growing financially and productivity-wise. Despite losing many of its founding executives and scientists, Altman has been able to push ahead with the development of GPT-5 and achieve another multi-billion-dollar funding round. OpenAI is enduring while balancing creativity with sound business practice.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Vox. Any shred of OpenAI's founding philosophy has disappeared. With a profit-driven CEO and board — not to mention the liquidation of its entire nonprofit side — the ChatGPT creator is moving full steam ahead toward one thing — profit. Everyone knows this won't be good for humanity, but neither the government nor the investment class seems to care.

Predictions