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OpenAI raises $6.6B in largest VC round ever, reaching post-money valuation of $157B

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Bay Area Times
October 03, 2024

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Top stories today:

  1. OpenAI raises $6.6B in largest VC round ever, at $157B
  2. Crude oil +1% to $70 as markets await Israel’s response to Iran
  3. Amazon launches new Fire HD 8 tablets with 50% more RAM
  4. WP Engine sues WordPress co-creator Mullenweg, Automattic
  5. GV, Salesforce lead top U.S. corporate ventures in 2024 so far

0. Data and calendar

All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).

All times are ET.

Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware the hallucination at the end about Amazon robots):

1. OpenAI raises $6.6B in largest VC round ever, reaching post-money valuation of $157B

  • ~1.3B: Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital led the round.

  • Microsoft, NVIDIA, and SoftBank were among the participating investors.

  • The deal topped the $6B raised by Elon Musk’s xAI.

  • The funding would help OpenAI "double down our leadership in frontier AI research, increase compute capacity, and continue building tools."

  • Avoid backing rival startups including xAI, OpenAI has asked investors.

OpenAI is now worth far more than any VC-backed company at the time of their IPO

  • Only SpaceX ($180B) and ByteDance ($220B) are worth more in the private company space.

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3. Crude oil +1% to $70 as markets await Israel’s response to Iran

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