Amid Ghibli image hype, OpenAI secures $40bn funding led by SoftBank, doubling valuation to $300bn—All you need to know

Sam Altman, founder-CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, on April 1 announced that the platform saw a record 1 million users in an hour — all thanks to its Ghibli-style image generation feature. Now, thanks to the user engagement, the artificial intelligence (AI) tech company has said that it has secured $40 billion from investors, in a funding round led by Softbank Group, to double valuation to $300 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.

“Hundreds of millions people use ChatGPT each week. This investment helps us push the frontier and make AI more useful in everyday life,” Sam Altman said in a statement on March 31.

The report cited Pitchbook, to say that this is the largest such financing round of all-time and almost doubles OpenAI's valuation from $157 billion since its October 2024 fundraise, to $300 billion this year.

Who is Investing in OpenAI? What's the Timeline? Details here

Masayoshi Son's Softbank is leading the funding round, with an initial investment of $7.5 billion, and $2.5 billion from an investor syndicate, Bloomberg reported citing a source in the know.

Other investors in the funding group include Microsoft Corporation, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital Management, and Thrive Capital, the source, who refused to be identified, stated.

Notably, an second tranche worth $30 billion will be invested in OpenAI by 2025-end, which would include $22.5 billion from SoftBank and $7.5 billion from a syndicate, the same source added.

OpenAI Sees Popularity Boost Thanks to Ghibli Style Images Rollout

OpenAI rolled out its native image generation feature to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users worldwide on March 26; and to free users on April 1. The highlight of this feature is the ability to transform any photo into Studio Ghibli style artwork, and drew in millions of impressed users.

The feature is so popular that OpenAI had to add restrictions over image generation for both paid and free users due to excessive demand which was “melting its GPUs (graphics processing units)," according to Sam Altman.

“It's super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT. But our GPUs are melting. We are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long!” he said on X.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)