OpenAI is close to finalising a $40bn funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank Group, Bloomberg reported citing sources familiar with the matter.
The funding round is expected to include investments from Magnetar Capital, Coatue Management, Founders Fund, and Altimeter Capital Management.
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Magnetar Capital, a hedge fund based in Evanston, Illinois, is anticipated to contribute up to $1bn, multiple sources told the publication.
As part of the latest funding, SoftBank is anticipated to invest an initial $7.5bn in OpenAI, with an additional $2.5bn coming from a syndicate of investors.
A second tranche of $30bn is expected later this year, comprising $22.5bn from SoftBank and $7.5bn from a syndicate, the report added.
The deal is expected to value OpenAI at $300bn, nearly doubling its previous valuation of $157bn from its October 2024 fundraising efforts.
In January 2025, OpenAI and SoftBank announced plans for a $500bn AI infrastructure project in the US, named Stargate.
The project was unveiled at the White House and involves an initial investment of $100bn, with plans to increase the investment to $500bn over the next four years.
According to OpenAI, the Stargate initiative aims to develop new AI infrastructure within the US, with the initial funding being deployed immediately.
During the same time, reports of SoftBank planning to invest between $15bn and $25bn in OpenAI surfaced.
OpenAI released its AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT in 2022.
Earlier in March 2025, the AI company introduced new image generation capabilities within its GPT-4o model, enhancing its ability to produce photorealistic visuals with improved accuracy.
The upgraded model can now render text with greater precision, follow complex instructions, and process up to 20 distinct objects within a single image.
