TLDR
- Apple exits OpenAI’s funding round, leaving Microsoft, Nvidia, Tiger Global, MGX and Thrive Capital, which is leading the round.
- OpenAI expects to post $3.7 billion in annual revenue this year, 73% from ChatGPT monthly users, but lose $5 billion.
- It plans to raise the ChatGPT premium monthly fee by $2 this year and to $44 over five years.
Apple is no longer in the running to invest in OpenAI’s $6.5 billion funding round, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Such an investment by Apple would have been a rare occurrence for the tech titan; Apple pulled out as the fund is set to close next week. Apple recently struck a deal to use OpenAI’s AI models to power generative AI capabilities in its devices, dubbed Apple Intelligence.
OpenAI’s funding round could value the startup at $150 billion, one of the highest for a tech firm. Potential investors include Microsoft, Nvidia, Tiger Global, MGX and Thrive Capital, which is leading the round.
Meanwhile, The New York Times is reporting that OpenAI’s revenue was $300 million in August, up 1,700% since the start of 2023. For the year, it is expecting revenue of $3.7 billion and for the topline to reach $11.6 billion in 2025.
However, OpenAI is looking at $5 billion in losses for this year, according to investment documents seen by the Times. The bulk of the expenses comes from AI training and inference, or running new data through a trained AI model.
For 2024, 73% of its $3.7 billion revenue come from people paying the $20 monthly fee to use the premium ChatGPT service. The rest come from businesses using its technology.
It has around 10 million premium users and one million developers that access its AI models’ APIs, of which the cost is based on usage. ChatGPT also offers a free service. As of June, OpenAI had 350 million monthly users, more than tripling its 100 million users in March.
OpenAI plans to increase the monthly fee by $2 by the end of the year, and to $44 a month over five years. It expects to book $100 billion in revenue by 2029.
Earlier this week, OpenAI suffered its latest round of executive exits. CTO Mira Murati, who has been the face of OpenAI along with CEO Sam Altman, announced her resignation along with the chief research officer and another researcher.
The exodus among the top ranks began in May with the departure of Chief Scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever, months after the firing and quick reinstatement of Altman as CEO. In June, several OpenAI employees signed an open letter saying leading tech companies cannot be trusted to keep AI safe for society.
The change comes as OpenAI is transitioning into a for-profit company where Altman would have a stake. OpenAI began as a nonprofit in which Altman had no ownership stake.
