According to the Wall Street Journal, ChatGPT creator Sam Altman is in investor talks at a $29 billion valuation with venture capital companies Thrive Capital and Founders Fund, which are in discussions to invest in the deal.
ChatGPT, the popular new chatbot that utilises artificial intelligence to generate essays and cover letters, has had a solid start to the year. ChatGPT may eventually challenge Google as a search engine.
The startup OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, is in discussions to sell current shares of its business in a tender offer that would value it at $29 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
According to people familiar with the matter, venture capital companies Thrive Capital and Founders Fund are in discussions to invest in the deal, and their investment would amount to at least $300 million in share sales.
Investors buy shares from current shareholders in a tender offer. The Journal stated that in this instance, that also applies to OpenAI’s employees.
Typically, tender offers are publicised in public and provide shareholders a limited amount of time to sell their shares. Shareholders are frequently given a price for their shares that is higher than the going rate.
According to the Journal, no agreement has been struck yet, and the parameters of any agreement could alter. Even while OpenAI hasn’t made much money, it also said that if the transaction goes through, it will make it one of the most valuable US startups.
OpenAI would also be one of the few startups to raise money at a greater valuation on the private market in a frigid environment when venture capital investors have mainly drawn back from supporting new startups, according to the Journal.
Dall-E 2, a platform for artificial intelligence-based image generation, is also created by OpenAI.
A representative for OpenAI told Insider that the company would not comment on the transaction.