OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has raised $40 billion in a fresh funding round, propelling its valuation to an estimated $300 billion. According to reports, the investment is being led by SoftBank Group, with Masayoshi Son’s firm contributing $7.5 billion. An additional $2.5 billion is coming from a syndicate of investors.

The round also saw participation from tech giants including Microsoft Corporation, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital Management, and Thrive Capital, a source familiar with the matter revealed.

In a company blog post, OpenAI stated, “This funding allows us to push the boundaries of AI research, scale our computing infrastructure, and provide more advanced tools to the 500 million people using ChatGPT weekly.”

Additionally, OpenAI is expected to receive another $30 billion in funding by the end of 2025, comprising $22.5 billion from SoftBank and $7.5 billion from a syndicate of investors, the report noted.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with SoftBank, a company with deep expertise in scaling transformative technologies. Their support will help us develop AI systems that drive scientific breakthroughs, personalize education, enhance creativity, and advance AGI for the benefit of all humanity,” OpenAI added.

Meanwhile, the company recently rolled out its native image generation feature for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users worldwide. On April 1, it was made available for free to all users, attracting one million users within just one hour.

Reflecting on the rapid adoption, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on X, “The ChatGPT launch 26 months ago was one of the wildest viral moments I’ve ever seen—we hit one million users in five days. Today, we hit one million users in an hour.”