OpenAI seeks funding at a valuation of $340 billion, doubling from last October

On January 31st, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is in early talks for a large-scale funding round, < b > valuing the company at $340 billion, more than double what it was in October last year . The ChatGPT maker is discussing a funding round of up to $40 billion. It follows reports that SoftBank Group is considering investing $15 billion to $25 billion in OpenAI. OpenAI and other top artificial intelligence companies have pledged billions of dollars in data, talent and physical infrastructure to support the development of more advanced artificial intelligence systems. The spending spree has been called into question in recent days when Chinese AI firm DeepSeek released a competitive model.