OpenAI secures $110bn funding round, valuation reaches $730bn

OpenAI has announced a record-breaking $110 billion funding round that values the artificial intelligence company at $730 billion, marking one of the largest investment rounds in Silicon Valley history.

The maker of ChatGPT said the round includes major commitments from key technology and investment players. Japan’s conglomerate SoftBank is investing $30 billion, chipmaker Nvidia is contributing $30 billion, and Amazon is providing $50 billion. Additional investors are expected to participate as the funding round continues.

As part of the deal, OpenAI also announced expanded strategic partnerships with Amazon and Nvidia. Amazon, through its cloud computing arm AWS, will deepen infrastructure collaboration, while Nvidia will continue supplying advanced AI chips critical for large-scale model training.

In a statement, OpenAI said SoftBank, Nvidia and Amazon share its long-term vision of transforming scientific advances into systems that deliver meaningful global benefits.

Amazon’s investment will begin with an initial $15 billion, followed by another $35 billion in the coming months once certain conditions are met, according to the companies.

The massive funding reflects the rapidly rising costs of computing power and the competitive pressure to scale AI systems worldwide. It also comes amid investor scrutiny over whether AI firms can generate enough revenue to sustain their heavy spending.

OpenAI pointed to strong user growth to support its expansion strategy. ChatGPT now has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million paying subscribers. The company said January and February are on track to become the platform’s strongest months ever for new subscriptions.

More than nine million businesses currently pay to use ChatGPT for workplace tasks. Meanwhile, usage of its Codex software development tool has more than tripled since the start of the year, reaching 1.6 million weekly users.

The announcement arrives as competition in the AI sector intensifies. Rival firm Anthropic continues to gain attention for its Claude models, while Google has strengthened its position with its Gemini AI system.

The latest funding round underscores both the extraordinary pace of AI adoption and the high-stakes race among leading technology companies to dominate the next era of artificial intelligence.