Microsoft-Backed OpenAI Hits $80 Billion Valuation in Groundbreaking Deal

Microsoft-backed OpenAI has successfully concluded a deal, elevating the valuation of the artificial intelligence company to an impressive $80 billion or more, according to sources cited by the New York Times on Friday, Feb. 16.

The transaction involves the sale of existing shares through a tender offer led by venture firm Thrive Capital. Unlike a conventional funding round aimed at raising capital for business operations, this deal enables employees to cash out their shares, per Reuters. This follows Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and K2 Global's tender offer early last year, which valued OpenAI at $29 billion.

Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is seeking funding for a semiconductor business to increase global chip-building capacity to enhance AI technologies. According to a Wall Street Journal Report, sources claim the OpenAI CEO is in talks with investors, including the UAE government, to fund a massive tech initiative that would increase chip-building capacity and AI power and cost several trillion dollars. One person estimated the project may take $5 trillion to $7 trillion.

US Court Rejects OpenAI's 'GPT' Trademark Application

This development comes following a setback OpenAI encountered in its pursuit of trademark 'GPT' as the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) rejected the application, citing the term's broad and generic nature. TechTimes earlier reported that the recent denial, disclosed discreetly last week, marks a continuing effort by OpenAI to shield the acronym since the introduction of its ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022.

Despite OpenAI contesting the PTO's position on the descriptiveness of "GPT," the federal agency remains resolute in refusing the trademark. "GPT" refers to a "generative pre-trained transformer," denoting a suite of neural network models capable of human-like text and image generation.

OpenAI's legal representatives argue that the technical nature of the "generative pre-trained transformer" renders it unfamiliar to the general public, emphasizing the ongoing debate over the balance between safeguarding intellectual property and ensuring widespread comprehension of technical terms in the dynamic AI landscape.

OpenAI Debuts AI-Powered Text-to-Video Generator

Last week, OpenAI introduced Sora, an innovative AI model capable of producing minute-long videos from text prompts. Named after the Japanese word for "sky," Sora joins the league of text-to-video models alongside companies like Meta and Google, distinguishing itself with the unique capability to generate videos of up to 60 seconds in length.

While the technology demonstrates impressive scene generation, public access is temporarily withheld pending thorough evaluations to prevent misuse amid rising concerns over various risks AI-powered tools pose. Professor Oren Etzioni from the University of Washington, who specializes in artificial intelligence and is the founder of True Media, has raised significant concerns, particularly related to the potential impact on closely contested elections. Moreover, there is a broader backlash from artists and creative professionals fearing job displacement due to the widespread adoption of generative AI.

OpenAI, in response to these concerns, underscores its collaboration with experts in misinformation, hateful content, and bias to thoroughly assess the implications of its tool before a public release. Addressing fears of misuse, the tech firm is actively developing detection tools capable of identifying videos generated by Sora and embedding metadata to aid in their identification.