--- title: "OpenAI Asking for Tens of Billions in New Investment to “Fund Its Money-Losing business Operations”" description: "After getting epically roasted by an upstart competitor, OpenAI is asking investors to give them another $40 billion anyway, pretty please." date: "2025-01-30" modified: "2025-01-30" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/openai-asking-investment" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "OpenAI" - "sam altman" --- # OpenAI Asking for Tens of Billions in New Investment to “Fund Its Money-Losing business Operations” ![After getting epically roasted by an upstart competitor, OpenAI is asking investors to give them another $40 billion anyway, pretty please.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* After getting [epically roasted]() by an upstart competitor, OpenAI is seemingly refusing to reevaluate its approach, asking investors to close their eyes and give them another $40 billion anyway, pretty please. As the [*Wall Street Journal* reports](), the Sam Altman-led company is in early talks for a new round of funding that would value it at a gargantuan $340 billion — which would put it [among the 30 biggest companies]() in the world by market cap, not to mention more than [twice the $157 billion]() it was valued at in October. Despite its sky-high valuation, it bears repeating that OpenAI isn't expected to make virtually any profit [until 2029, at the very earliest]() — and even that's a highly optimistic read of the situation, given the [many shortcomings still plaguing the tech](). For evidence, look no further than the *WSJ'*s diplomatic phrasing: the "startup also expects to use the cash to fund its money-losing business operations." OpenAI is looking to raise funds at least in part to fulfill its promise of committing roughly $18 billion to president Donald Trump's [shiny AI infrastructure initiative](). The project, dubbed Stargate, is aiming to raise as much as [half a trillion dollars]() in a matter of four years — plans that [were met with plenty of skepticism](). Fellow Stargate signee SoftBank is said to lead OpenAI's latest round of funding, contributing anywhere from $15 to $25 billion, according to the *WSJ*. The timing of the latest revelation is striking, to say the least. Earlier this week, a new hyper-efficient model by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek [flipped the entire AI industry on its head](), triggering a [massive tech selloff]() that wiped out over $1 trillion in market capitalization. The company's latest "reasoning" AI model, dubbed R1, caught investors by surprise, demonstrating that the proficiency of OpenAI's most powerful models can be matched at a tiny fraction of the cost. DeepSeek's efforts clearly [challenged OpenAI's modus operandi](), demonstrating that stuffing as many billions of dollars as possible into massive data centers for extremely power-hungry models may not be the most economically savvy approach. Is the latest round of funding yet another warning sign of staggering bloat suffocating the AI industry and limiting innovation? Investors are bound to have a very close look before committing even more cash, following this week's immense financial and logistical reality check. It certainly wouldn't be the first major misstep for SoftBank. The company has a troubled history with past investments — remember [WeWork]()? — [posting a record $32 billion loss]() for its Vision Fund in 2023, for instance. In short, OpenAI just doubled its already lofty stack of chips, vowing to go all in. Altman [has promised]() that OpenAI will "obviously deliver much better models" than DeepSeek, without giving any more details. "But mostly we are excited to continue to execute on our research roadmap and believe more compute is more important now than ever before to succeed at our mission," he added in a [Monday tweet](). Put differently, Altman is fully committed to pumping as much money into AI datacenter infrastructure as possible — efficiency, environment, and economic edge be damned. "The world is going to want to use a LOT of AI, and really be quite amazed by the next-gen models coming," he wrote. **More on OpenAI:** *[AI Companies Tremble as They Realize It's Easy for Competitors to Steal Their Super-Expensive Work for Pennies on the Dollar]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()