OpenAI - the world's first company valued at $500 billion

OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT software, has surpassed billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX to become the world's largest startup with a valuation of $500 billion.

OpenAI has completed a deal to raise a total of $6.6 billion from a group of investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group Corp., Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi's MGX and T. Rowe Price.

At this price, the market value converted from the company's total shares has reached 500 billion USD, far exceeding the previous 300 billion USD in the funding round led by SoftBank earlier this year.

The stock sale also puts OpenAI's valuation above SpaceX's previous $400 billion mark.

OpenAI is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2015 with the original mission of developing AI that serves “the best interest of humanity.”

However, after partnering with Microsoft in 2019, the company has shifted heavily towards commercialization.

The interest from major tech companies has helped make OpenAI the world’s largest startup. It coincides with Microsoft and OpenAI signing a new non-binding agreement that will allow OpenAI to restructure into a regular, for-profit company.

OpenAI’s rapid growth comes on the back of a boom in investment focused on leading AI companies. While it’s not yet profitable, OpenAI is at the center of an “AI infrastructure boom.”

The company recently signed a contract with Oracle and SK Hynix to support its massive $500 billion Stargate AI data center project.

OpenAI, along with Oracle and SoftBank, also announced plans to build five new AI data centers in the US, part of the ambitious Stargate megaproject.

OpenAI is expected to receive up to $100 billion in investment from chipmaker Nvidia, cementing its position as a leading player in the race to build AI systems that can transform the economy and society.

The move will allow OpenAI to expand the data center network needed to run ChatGPT, which is expected to reach 700 million weekly global users by August 2025.

Most recently, chip maker AMD said on October 6 that it would supply AI chips to OpenAI under a multi-year deal that is expected to generate tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and give ChatGPT creator the right to buy about 10% of the chip maker's shares.

AMD said OpenAI will build a 1GW data center using its upcoming MI450 chip early next year and will start recording revenue at that time.

In the long term, OpenAI faces growing competitive pressure from rivals like Google and Anthropic, which are also raising capital at a rapid pace.

In response, OpenAI has embarked on a series of new technology products, including two open, free AI models that can simulate human reasoning.

A few months ago, China's DeepSeek attracted global attention with its own open-source software.

OpenAI showed no signs of slowing down when it released its most powerful model, GPT-5, in August 2025, cementing its leadership in an increasingly competitive field./.

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/openai-cong-ty-dau-tien-tren-the-gioi-duoc-dinh-gia-500-ty-usd-post1072496.vnp