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OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

cnbc.com

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Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#281

Post by [deleted] »

aurareturn wrote: post #158
manquer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't reporting anything yet. What we hearing is just from news media who get their leaks/info from investors who get some form of IR reports/ presentation. Both will do public reporting only when they IPO[4] and have regulatory requirement to do so every quarter. For private companies[1] reporting to investors there are no fixed rules really[3] Even for public companies, there is fair amount of leeway on how G…

They aren't reporting anything yet. What we hearing is just from news media who get their leaks/info from investors who get some form of IR reports/ presentation. The $24b figure is literally in OpenAI's announcement. The $19b ARR and $6b added in Feb came directly from Anthropic CEO recently.

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#282

Post by ewhanley »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #235
Aurornis wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common structure. It's confusing to people who don't know finance or startups when they first see it. Even VCs don't get all of their fund money delivered into their bank account when they raise a funding round. It's inefficient and undesirable for everyone involved to have to move all of the money up-front, at once. If you talk to anyone in startup funding or finance they'll be familiar with the term "capi…

I've been involved in many startups, and this type of fundraising is not common, or at least it wasn't common before a few years or so ago The whole concept of talking about "runway" is basically calculating how much cash in the bank, that is actually in your bank account, will last. And this arrangement is different, as there are contingencies. In the past, VCs would just give you money in a particular series, and t…

Sure for like $5-10MM, but no one is landing $100B cash in a startup's bank account

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#283

Post by Saline9515 »

komali2 wrote: post #280
apparent wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wondered how many announced fundraising rounds were like this. It's in everyone's interest (VCs and entrepreneurs) if the message to the outside world is "this company is amazing so they've raised a boatload of cash". But VCs might not want to give it all up front, or unconditionally. It makes it hard to say what the valuation of a company is. If the milestones are unlikely to be hit, then it's anyone's guess.

There's an accelerator here in Taiwan with a model I truly don't understand: 100k usd for 10%. 10%!! You've just valued the company at only 1 million! And taken a HUGE chunk of equity, not much left on the table! Maybe it makes sustainable sense but in the world of venture capital it seems the most profitable thing to do is lie through a Cheshire grin, every day.

This is very standard, Ycombinator, which hosts this board, does the same: https://www.ycombinator.com/about

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#284

Post by prasadjoglekar »

ewhanley wrote: post #282
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been involved in many startups, and this type of fundraising is not common, or at least it wasn't common before a few years or so ago The whole concept of talking about "runway" is basically calculating how much cash in the bank, that is actually in your bank account, will last. And this arrangement is different, as there are contingencies. In the past, VCs would just give you money in a particular series, and t…

Sure for like $5-10MM, but no one is landing $100B cash in a startup's bank account

$100B isn't a startup. And if there's a $100B deal, you better believe the cash is there. Case in point - Netflix/Paramount wanting to buy WB. Or the $44B that Musk had to raise to buy out Twitter shareholders.

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#285

Post by mschuster91 »

saintfire wrote: post #268
outside1234 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, until the Iranians blow up their refineries.

Iranians are also making bank. Why kick a hornets nest when you're winning?

> Why kick a hornets nest when you're winning?

Tell that to Trump and his glorious way of bombing Iran. Nothing against the idea itself, the Mullahs all but asked for it to happen.

But the execution? That was a level of dogshit I haven't seen in the time I was alive lol. Even Russia was better prepared with their invasion of Ukraine.

Both Trump and Netanyahu had a somewhat solid perspective on not getting utterly wasted in the next elections. Instead they go on one of the most ill-prepared wars in modern history, with results that may seriously upend the global economy if not lead us to WW3 outright.

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#286

Post by zmmmmm »

samdjstephens wrote: post #23

> The broad consumer reach of ChatGPT creates a powerful distribution channel into the workplace They mention this line in different forms a couple of times in the article. It’s clear they’re pretty rattled about Anthropic’s momentum in enterprise, I wonder how confident they really are in this rationale.

It's an interesting strategy, I see a pretty big risk from them leaning into it like this. We already have a vibe in my circles of the old "gmail vs yahoo" type thing where if you saw someone had a yahoo mail address you assumed they were technologically illiterate. Similarly it's mildly embarrassing already to say you used ChatGPT for something. It's not unrecoverable, but it's a pretty steep slippery slope they probably don't want to be anywhere near if they care about enterprise.

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#287

Post by Nevermark »

Aurornis wrote: post #184
apparent wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wondered how many announced fundraising rounds were like this. It's in everyone's interest (VCs and entrepreneurs) if the message to the outside world is "this company is amazing so they've raised a boatload of cash". But VCs might not want to give it all up front, or unconditionally. It makes it hard to say what the valuation of a company is. If the milestones are unlikely to be hit, then it's anyone's guess.

This is a common structure. It's confusing to people who don't know finance or startups when they first see it. Even VCs don't get all of their fund money delivered into their bank account when they raise a funding round. It's inefficient and undesirable for everyone involved to have to move all of the money up-front, at once. If you talk to anyone in startup funding or finance they'll be familiar with the term "capi…

> Amazon agreed to invest up to $50 billion in the startup

> Nvidia invested $30 billion

> Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s longtime partners, also participated

There is a lot of non-cash, never-will-be cash, investment here. Credits for compute.

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#288

Post by class3shock »

zer00eyz wrote: post #234
nine_k wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking around, and especially forward, it would be military tech, e.g. [1], and its supply chain, e.g. [2] :-\ Valuations are not as crazy, but I bet there'll going to be a lot of demand in the coming decade, unfortunately. Chip production, too, of course, but it's overflowing with money already, apparently. It's growing though, because there are real actual shortages of stuff like RAM and SSDs, there's money to be…

> it would be military tech Anduril is the only company in this sector in the US that has any promise and they aren't even public. Most of us are not going to get our hands on this. Traditional defense sector looks more like Jeep, or Kodak...

Anduril has yet to deliver anything of consequence. I hope they shake up the industry but to say they are the next hot thing and write off the primes at this stage is premature.

Re: OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation

#289

Post by HWR_14 »

podgietaru wrote: post #108
simianwords wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you lack imagination. This is going to be the future because it is legitimately a step up from the previous ways of doing things. I can do things that were way more difficult before. It doesn't have to be AI all the way - no one's asking AI to book things on its own and make the payments on their own. What does work is, make AI do the research and you verify and you do the payment. Human in the loop. To me th…

Maybe there's a scenario where that is useful. But again, I don't know why I'd want an AI to do this research for me. I hop on Skyscanner. I type my location, and where I'd like to go. It presents me with a list of options, and I can then use the filters to find times that work best for me. I see a flight that isn't in my time frame, but is actually like 400 euros cheaper. And I decide in that moment that waking up a…

You had me going until you said this is even clearer why it is important for food. Food is cheaper and has less impact on your life. I'm much more tolerant of a mistake or suboptimal experience with food.
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