Funding & Business
OpenAI said to be in talks to raise $40B at a $340B valuation
OpenAI may have billions of dollars in the bank. But it’s gearing up to raise billions more, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Per The WSJ, OpenAI is in talks to secure up to $40 billion in a funding round that would value the startup at $340 billion. SoftBank would lead the round, pouring between $15 billion to $25 billion into the ChatGPT maker, according to The WSJ.
Should OpenAI successfully close the round, it’d be a remarkable feat for the startup, which was valued at $157 billion in October. The WSJ says that OpenAI would use the capital to fund its money-losing business operations and fulfill its commitment to Stargate, its ambitious project to build AI data centers across the U.S.
In 2024, OpenAI reportedly lost around $5 billion against revenues of $3.7 billion. The losses could mount. In conjunction with partners including SoftBank, OpenAI aims to contribute billions of dollars to Stargate to start.
Denmark’s largest pension fund has boosted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S this year, betting the obesity drugmaker will outpace rivals beyond the US market where its struggles have led to two profit warnings.
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A startup that’s developed an AI “copilot” to provide engineers with information about mechanical systems has raised $9.7 million in seed funding.
Massachusetts-based Leo AI has created what it calls a large mechanical model, or “LMM,” that’s trained on engineering materials like sketches and peer-reviewed technical literature.
Engineers can enter prompts, like “show me a bolt that fits this hole,” and the AI can display the correct one. In addition to text, engineers can input sketches and 3D designs, and they can also use the tool to visualize concepts.
“We developed the first AI to understand geometry and engineering,” Leo AI’s cofounder and CEO, Maor Farid, told Business Insider. “Our LMM knows how to take machine parts as tokens, and turn them into an assembly model.”
A key problem the startup wants to solve is reducing the amount of time mechanical engineers spend on repetitive tasks, such as searching for product parts.
Leo AI makes its money by offering a subscription model to clients, which includes Scania, HP, Siemens, and others.
“We are rebelling against very expensive or long-term contract relationships, and we offer small subscriptions — with the smallest package lasting just a month,” Farid said.
Flint Capital led the $9.7 million seed round, which included participation from an A16z scout, Tech Aviv, Two Lanterns VC, and Google VP Yossi Matias, among others.
With the fresh funding, Leo AI plans to double down on its product development.
Check out the 10-slide pitch deck used to secure the funding, shared exclusively with Business Insider.
AustralianSuper, the country’s top pension fund, has earmarked A$40 billion ($26 billion) for local investment, including critical infrastructure, over the next five years, according to chief executive Paul Schroder.
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