OpenAI is worth more than Snap, Domino’s, Zillow, The NYTimes, Levi’s, and 7 other companies combined

The loss-making startup now has $10+ billion to play with

10/4/24 9:45AM

Earlier this week, OpenAI, the tech startup behind gen-AI chatbot ChatGPT, closed its latest funding round. The deal — one of the largest funding rounds ever for a private company, counting investors such as Thrive Capital, Microsoft, and Nvidia — added $6.6 billion to the company’s coffers, and values the world’s hottest AI startup at $157 billion.

That makes OpenAI worth roughly the same as Goldman Sachs (~$153 billion), despite being some 146 years younger than the investment bank. It makes it more valuable than Nike or Starbucks. In fact, OpenAI’s market cap is bigger than the valuation of 12 of America’s best-known multi-billion-dollar companies, including Zoom (~$21 billion) and Warner Music Group (~$16 billion), combined. Pretty remarkable for any young company, let alone one expecting to rack up a loss of $5 billion this year.

Chat, is this real?

OpenAI has had a far more eventful 12 months than your average startup, weathering a dramatic CEO ousting, major copyright lawsuits, more copyright lawsuits, a high-profile voice usage dispute, and, most recently, a huge leadership upheaval, which left only 3 out of 11 co-founders remaining at the company. Then again, OpenAI is not your average startup.

While the meteoric rise of ChatGPT has provoked concerns about the ethical use of AI, OpenAI’s rampant growth has sent investors clamoring to buy a slice of it, the company’s restructuring as a for-profit corporation has only caused interest to swell further. On top of the equity investment, OpenAI has also tapped several banks for a $4 billion revolving credit line, giving it access to more than $10 billion in liquidity.

But, as our colleague Jack Raines asked last week: Is OpenAI worth anywhere near $150 billion without the senior employees who actually built it?

Max Knoblauch

14m

Spotify expands its anti-AI verified badges to podcasts

Spotify introduced verified badges for musician profiles in late April.

Spotify Hosts a "Now Playing" Creator Day at its Los Angeles Campus

Tom Jones2h

Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind’s CEO and founder, was also an early Anthropic investor

A chess prodigy, and an actual a knight of the realm in the UK, it's perhaps no surprise that Demis Hassabis has made some strategic moves about his exposure to AI upside. According to people familiar with the matter, the influential AI architect became an angel investor in Anthropic, currently behind many of the leading AI models, per Arena AI leaderboards.

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, according to the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

Google, which bought DeepMind, the company that Hassabis cofounded and heads to this day, for a reported ~$400 million in 2014, is also a key Anthropic investor. The tech giant reportedly plans to invest up to $40 billion in the AI company as part of the mutually beneficial relationship the pair have forged, with reports that Anthropic has committed to spend $200 billion in the other direction on Google’s cloud services over the next five years.

I'm playing all sides, so I always come out on top

In addition to his financial support for Anthropic, Hassabis has also invested in a range of AI startups launched by colleagues, such as Inflection AI, a company set up by his DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman (who is now CEO of Microsoft AI), as well as efforts from other collaborators, like David Silver’s Ineffable Intelligence.

Hassabis also emerged as recurring figure on the fringes of the recent Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial, cropping up repeatedly in testimonies and court documents and appearing to live, as The Verge put it, “rent-free” in Musk’s head.

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis emerges as early Anthropic investor

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, according to the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

I'm playing all sides, so I always come out on top

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

Max Knoblauch19h

Jury rules against Musk in lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman

Jurors in Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI found the defendants not liable on all claims on Monday.

In a unanimous verdict reached after less than two hours of deliberation, the Oakland jury found that Musk had waited too long to bring his case forward, exceeding the statute of limitations.

Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

Jury tosses Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman

Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

Millie Giles

WRIST BUMP

22h

Swatch’s collaboration with Audemars Piguet could help bring hype back to its bottom line

The rival watchmakers have teamed up on a buzzy new collection that’s sparking a global consumer frenzy.