OpenAI is in negotiations for new investment deals that could potentially increase the company’s valuation to $500 billion. If successful, this would make OpenAI the most valuable private firm in the world. Among the possible scenarios, two options are being considered: raising capital from SoftBank at a valuation of $300 billion and a secondary sale of employee shares based on a valuation of $500 billion.
This is reported by Business • Media
Growth in users, revenue, and company expenses
The demand for OpenAI’s products, particularly ChatGPT, remains extremely high. Over 700 million people use ChatGPT weekly, yet less than 10% of them pay for a subscription. At the same time, the company does not disclose detailed information about the number of paying users.
In the first seven months of 2025, OpenAI’s revenue doubled, reaching $12 billion. The corporate client base has grown to 5 million organizations, including many business users.
However, the company’s expenses remain significant and are increasing alongside the scaling of operations. In 2025, they could reach $8 billion, most of which is directed towards supporting the infrastructure for artificial intelligence models. OpenAI founder Sam Altman predicts that future investments in data centers could reach trillions of dollars.
Skepticism about valuation and risks for investors
“The key question is whether OpenAI can retain customers while simultaneously reducing costs. Only then is it realistic to earn an estimated $5 per user per month,” said New York University professor Arun Sundararajan.
Another professor at the same university, Glenn Okun, points out that investors are expecting OpenAI to go public with a valuation exceeding $1 trillion in the next 2-3 years. Otherwise, the return on investment will be in question.
Experts also emphasize that the price of shares in the private market reflects only the willingness of a limited number of investors to pay for them and does not always represent the company’s actual value.
According to PitchBook, in 2025, 65% of venture capital investments were directed towards artificial intelligence projects. Among the largest deals are the funding of Thinking Machines Lab, a startup by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, as well as Meta’s investment of $14 billion in the startup Scale AI.
Wired journalists report that during one dinner in San Francisco, Sam Altman acknowledged the existence of a “bubble” around AI company valuations, but emphasized that the impact of artificial intelligence technologies on the world can be compared to the rise of the internet.
Investors are betting that OpenAI will become an indispensable digital tool, much like Google once did, and billions of users will be willing to pay for access to ChatGPT. However, experts warn of significant risks: scaling technologies is very expensive, and costs rise with the number of users and the complexity of AI models.
It is worth noting that the ChatGPT mobile app has already generated approximately $2 billion for OpenAI since its launch, further confirming the company’s commercial potential.