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The AI giant, with a last valuation of $86bn, splashed onto the scene after releasing the groundbreaking ChatGPT in 2022.
OpenAI is reportedly aiming to raise $6.5bn from investors including Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia at a valuation of $150bn.
Inside sources told Bloomberg that the start-up is also looking to raise $5bn in debt from banks as a revolving credit facility.
This comes after similar reports of a funding round surfaced just two weeks ago, which suggested the ChatGPT creator’s value would hit more than $100bn.
The new valuation will be significantly higher than the start-up’s previous valuation of $86bn and will make the company one of the most valuable start-ups in the world.
However, sources who remain anonymous, said that the deal is ongoing and the terms could possibly change. OpenAI declined to comment on the reports.
The funding is being led by New York-based venture capital firm Thrive Capital, which is expected to provide a $1bn injection. Industry heavyweights Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia are all expected to participate.
Microsoft has been OpenAI’s largest backer since it released ChatGPT in 2022. Last year, the company integrated many of its tools with OpenAI models, including Bing and Copilot.
In July, it gave up its observer seat on OpenAI’s board saying it has seen “significant progress” in the AI start-up and no longer feels it’s necessary to hold one. This is in the context of ongoing antitrust scrutiny of its ties with OpenAI in the US.
The AI start-up recently revealed that more than 90pc of Fortune 500 companies are using its products and that usage of its automated API has doubled since the release of GPT-4o mini in July.
OpenAI advertises GPT-4o mini as a model that can perform various tasks at a low cost and latency. The company claims it’s an upgrade from its previous “small models” such as GPT-3.5 Turbo.
“GPT-4o mini is paving the way for developers to build and scale powerful AI applications more efficiently and affordably,” the company wrote in a blogpost.
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