OpenAI has been valued at $80 billion. The San Francisco artificial intelligence company’s valuation has nearly tripled in less than 10 months. It would sell existing shares to employees. A deal led by the venture firm Thrive Capital allows employees to cash out. OpenAI is now one of the world’s most valuable tech start-ups. The deal is another example of Silicon Valley deal-making machine, which specializes in generative A.I. The funding boom started after OpenAI released the chatbot ChatGPT. The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, in December, for copyright infringement. The deal comes at a critical time for OpenAI. The company faced controversy after the board fired its CEO, Sam Altman. OpenAI hired the law firm WilmerHale to review the board’s actions and Altman’s leadership. Last year, venture-capital firms bought OpenAI shares in a tender offer. Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI. Anthropic, an OpenAI rival, has raised $6 billion from Google and Amazon. Cohere has raised $270 million and Inflection AI has raised $1.3 billion. In November, 700 of the company’s 770 employees signed a petition calling for Altman’s reinstatement.
