By Adam Clark
OpenAI has raised $122 billion ahead of its planned initial public offering. The ChatGPT developer got its biggest backing from Amazon.com as it looks to lessen its dependence on Microsoft.
OpenAI is now valued at $852 billion after the funding, which is expected to be the ChatGPT developer's last major round of investment before an IPO, which could come as soon as this year.
Amazon made the single largest commitment at up to $50 billion in investment, although it is structured with a $15 billion investment, followed by a $35 billion tranche contingent on certain milestones.
The involvement of Amazon diversifies OpenAI's hardware and cloud-computing resources from its historic relationship with Microsoft. OpenAI plans to use two gigawatts of computing capacity from Amazon's in-house Trainium chips.
Japan's SoftBank Group and chip maker Nvidia both made $30 billion commitments. Microsoft also participated in the funding round.
Meanwhile, OpenAI raised more than $3 billion from individual investors through banks and said it would be included in several exchange-traded funds managed by Cathie Wood's ARK Invest, as it broadens its shareholder base.
"ARK believes AI will create trillions of dollars of value through productivity gains across sectors, and that foundational AI companies like OpenAI stand to capture a significant share of the economics," a spokesperson for the fund manager said in an emailed statement.
OpenAI said Tuesday that it is now generating $2 billion in monthly revenue and that it expects to soon reach one billion weekly active users. The company said it is building a "unified AI superapp" after recently closing down its Sora video-generation app to reallocate resources.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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April 01, 2026 07:30 ET (11:30 GMT)
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