$122 billion! OpenAI completes Silicon Valley's largest funding round in history, with a valuation of $852 billion

Ask AI · How Will Massive Funding for OpenAI Accelerate the Deployment of AI Super Applications?

OpenAI is making big moves again.

On March 31st, local time, OpenAI announced the completion of its latest funding round, with a committed capital of $122 billion, and a post-investment valuation of $852 billion, making it the highest funding round in Silicon Valley company history.

This round of funding was led by Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank, with Microsoft continuing to participate. SoftBank, along with a16z, D. E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG, and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., co-led the investment. Additionally, institutions such as Ark Investment led by Cathie Wood, Blackstone, Sequoia, Temasek, Thrive Capital, and others participated broadly.

Previously, OpenAI revealed that some strategic investors committed $110 billion as the foundation for this funding round, including $50 billion from Amazon, $30 billion from Nvidia, and $30 billion from SoftBank.

Moreover, OpenAI stated that it has opened participation to investors through banking channels for the first time, raising over $3 billion from individual investors. The company also announced that it will be included in several ETFs managed by Ark Investment.

OpenAI further indicated that it has expanded its existing revolving credit line to approximately $4.7 billion, supported by a global syndicate including JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Mizuho, Royal Bank of Canada, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, UBS, HSBC, and Santander, which was undrawn at the time of financing completion.

Regarding partner selection, OpenAI stated that Nvidia remains the foundation of the company’s AI infrastructure, with training clusters and most inference stacks continuing to run on Nvidia GPUs. “The demand for AI systems is growing faster and becoming more diverse. No single architecture can efficiently meet the entire frontier of AI. To meet this demand and maintain flexibility, we are building a broader infrastructure portfolio through multiple cloud partners, multiple chip platforms, and deeper cross-stack collaborative design.”

OpenAI further explained that the company achieves cloud infrastructure through Microsoft, Oracle, AWS, CoreWeave, and Google Cloud; silicon through Nvidia, AMD, AWS Trainium, Cerebras, and proprietary chips developed in collaboration with Broadcom; and data centers through partnerships with Oracle, SBE, and SoftBank.

OpenAI straightforwardly stated: “Our ‘flywheel’ is simple. More computing power drives smarter models, smarter models lead to better products, better products accelerate adoption, generate more revenue, and create more cash flow. This allows us to reinvest and serve consumers, enterprises, and developers worldwide more effectively.”

At the end of March, OpenAI announced it would cease using its video generation tool Sora. It is reported that OpenAI will refocus its team on developing advanced robots and AI models capable of interacting with the physical world.

OpenAI’s head of applications, Fidji Simo, also recently stated at an all-hands meeting that OpenAI is “actively” shifting toward high-productivity application scenarios. One key development area is enterprise applications, where Anthropic has already established a large business with its Claude model. According to some meeting notes, Simo said, “What’s really important for us now is to stay focused and execute well.”

In December last year, Otman also announced that OpenAI had entered a “red code” emergency status, urging employees to focus on core priorities, including work on ChatGPT and competing for enterprise clients with Anthropic.

Meanwhile, OpenAI revealed that the company is building a unified AI super application because “users don’t want scattered tools; they want a single system that understands intent, takes action, and runs across applications, data, and workflows.” Therefore, this super app will integrate ChatGPT, Codex, browsing capabilities, and broader Agent functionalities into an agent-centered experience.

It is reported that ChatGPT currently has over 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million subscribers. Its monthly web visits and mobile sessions are four times those of all other applications combined. Search usage has nearly tripled in a year, and a pilot advertising program generated over $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within six weeks.

In terms of enterprise orders, OpenAI stated that they now account for over 40% of the company’s total revenue and are expected to reach parity with consumer revenue by the end of 2026.

Additionally, OpenAI revealed that its API now processes over 15 billion tokens per minute, with Codex having over 2 million active weekly users, growing fivefold in the past three months, with monthly usage increasing over 70%.

Otman previously disclosed that OpenAI might go public in 2027. Reports suggest that OpenAI’s IPO could be valued at around $1 trillion, with a potential application for listing submitted to regulators as early as the second half of 2026.