OpenAI secures $80bn valuation

2/18/24 7:00PM

‍OpenAI, the company behind viral generative AI tool ChatGPT, has completed its latest round of fundraising, valuing the company at some $80 billion.

The deal comes after chaos at the company gripped the tech world at the end of last year, when the company’s board of directors abruptly fired CEO Sam Altman, only to have him reinstated days later after a majority of OpenAI employees called for his return.

The fundraising will give the organization the financial firepower to build on ChatGPT, as well as Sora, the text-to-video tool previewed by the company last week. Despite the drama in 2023, the company’s unusual corporate structure remains, with the (capped) for-profit company still overseen by a non-profit board of directors.

Rani Molla

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The company’s positive free cash flow is largely due to the fact that it hasn’t ramped capex spending yet.

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🤖 75%

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On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post that AI is now writing 75% of new code at the company. This is up from 50% last fall. Pichai said all code is “approved by engineers.”

Google announced new TPU 8 chips today at its annual Cloud Next event. Pichai wrote:

“We’re now shifting to truly agentic workflows. Our engineers are orchestrating fully autonomous digital task forces, firing off agents and accomplishing incredible things.”

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Tesla just opened the door to 50,000 government buyers

Tesla signed a deal that lets more than 50,000 public agencies — including police departments and school districts — buy its vehicles without the usual slow bidding process, making it much easier to compete in a market long dominated by Ford and General Motors. The public sector currently represents less than 1% of Tesla’s sales.

The move doesn’t guarantee orders, but it removes a major barrier at a time when Tesla is looking for new demand to bolster its main source of revenues. Tesla’s Q1 deliveries fell short of analyst expectations and annual sales have declined for two years in a row. The public sector also represents a large pool of buyers who are beyond Elon Musk’s other companies.

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Google shares jump on new TPU 8 chips, enterprise agent platform, and partnership with Nvidia

The raft of announcements from Google’s Cloud Next ’26 event sent shares up in early trading.

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How Elon Musk has shifted SpaceX’s goals ahead of its IPO

The New York Times took a close look at how Elon Musk is reshaping SpaceX’s priorities ahead of its highly anticipated, potentially record-breaking IPO — and what that could mean for the company and its investors.

As the NYT’s Ryan Mac noted in the article, “Shifting aims before an I.P.O. would be unthinkable for most corporate leaders, who tend to focus on their core businesses and try to project steadiness to potential investors.”

But Musk, who is also the ever-unpredictable CEO of Tesla, doesn’t follow typical playbooks. Here’s a quick look at how SpaceX’s goals have changed:

Musk’s SpaceX Goals Shift Ahead of Its I.P.O.