That’s OpenAI’s estimated post-money value during its latest round of fundraising on Wednesday, where the maker of ChatGPT raised $6.6 billion. The round was led by Thrive Capital.
To put the number in perspective, the $157 billion valuation is roughly equivalent to the market capitalization of US financial behemoth Goldman Sachs, and bigger than household names like Uber (~$153 billion), Lockheed Martin (~$144 billion), Nike (~$125 billion) and Starbucks (~$108 billion).
Just a little over a year ago, OpenAI was valued at $86 billion. That had already made OpenAI one of the world’s most valuable private companies, just after TikTok owner ByteDance and Elon Musk’s SpaceX (both valued at over $200 billion).
The hottest AI startup in the world has had quite a year. Since November, about 20 high-profile researchers and executives left OpenAI (although the vast majority of employees who supported CEO Sam Altman last year stayed). The non-profit company is also reportedly turning into a for-profit.
The restructuring would be crucial for venture capitalists’ financial returns, my colleague Jack Raines argued, so it was unsurprising that we saw giants like SoftBank and Nvidia reportedly participating in the round, too.
