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OpenAI's Valuation Jumps to $150bn with Incoming $6.5bn Equity Financing
5-minute read, get updated on tech.
Kristoffer Lindström
September 12, 2024
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TECH BRIEF
Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, indicated his days of apologizing are over during a recent podcast event at the Chase Center. He suggested his greatest error was taking too much responsibility for perceived problems beyond Facebook's control. Among other actions signalling a change in approach, Zuckerberg sent a letter to House Republicans apologizing for censoring COVID-19 misinformation in 2020, and Facebook and Instagram restored Trump's social media accounts their privileges. The CEO is more eager for projects beyond social media, notably Meta's AR glasses, VR goggles and open-source AI efforts.
The US Department of Justice's (DOJ) antitrust case against Google focuses on allegations that the tech company's Ad Manager platform stifles competition and maximizes profits, while preventing rivals from entering and competing in ad markets. The DOJ request for Google to spin off or sell its ad tech business is complicated by uncertainties regarding the actual size of Google's ad business and potential values of Google Ad Manager. A standalone ad tech business could potentially be worth up to $95 billion, according to some estimates.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, has emphasized the firm's software capabilities and expansive GPU ecosystem as key differentiators in the competitive AI chip market. He cited three strategic areas: a large base of GPUs in various platforms, enhancing hardware with tailored libraries, and rack-level systems expertise. Amid supply chain challenges, Nvidia has sufficient resources to change manufacturing without disruptions, Huang said. He expects to start shipping products based on the new Blackwell platform by Q4 of fiscal 2025.
French AI startup Mistral has launched Pixtral 12B, its first ever multimodal model capable of processing images and texts. Built on Mistral's text model, Nemo 12B, Pixtral 12B has a 12-billion parameter capacity, which potentially elevates its problem-solving skills. The model is accessible via GitHub and Hugging Face under an unrestricted Apache 2.0 license. The revelation follows Mistral's $645M funding round led by General Catalyst, marking the firm's value at $6B.
Nvidia's customers are frustrated due to a limited supply of its AI chips, according to CEO Jensen Huang. The company is witnessing strong demand for its latest Blackwell chips, used in AI models at data centers. Despite this, Nvidia relies mostly on data center operators such as Meta and Microsoft for its revenue. Furthermore, Nvidia has drawn regulatory scrutiny over cloud provider pressure, while competition from AMD, Google, Amazon, and Huawei continues to intensify.
OpenAI is preparing to raise $6.5 billion in equity financing, propelling its valuation to a staggering $150 billion. Alongside this milestone, the startup is also in talks to secure $5 billion in bank debt through a revolving credit facility. The funding round is expected to be led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Microsoft Corp., and potential investments from Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp.
Google's AI research app, NotebookLM, has introduced an "Audio Overview" feature that enables users to comprehend information in their uploaded documents audibly. The feature employs AI-generated virtual hosts to explain complex topics in a conversational manner. Currently, only English-language conversations can be generated, and users can also download these for on-the-go understanding.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin reveals he has returned to the tech giant, spending almost every day engaging in AI projects. Brin expressed his excitement over the rapid progress in AI technology, dismissing the need for massive computational scale-up due to advancements in algorithms.
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