OpenAI has finalized a record-setting $40 billion funding round, boosting the company's valuation to $300 billion, with major investments from SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBF) (OTC:SFTBY), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), and other key backers.

What Happened: This financing round is the largest in history, according to research firm PitchBook, and almost doubles OpenAI's previous valuation of $157 billion.

SoftBank led the latest funding round with an initial investment of $7.5 billion, accompanied by $2.5 billion from a group of investors, reported Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the agreement.

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Other investors in the group are Microsoft, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital Management, and Thrive Capital.

A second round of funding, totaling $30 billion, is expected by the end of 2025. This will consist of $22.5 billion from SoftBank and $7.5 billion from the investor group, the report noted.

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Why It Matters:  OpenAI reportedly expects its revenue to surge to $12.7 billion this year. The company also revealed it has 1 million paid users for its corporate versions of ChatGPT, with a new $200-per-month "Pro" plan for access to advanced AI models.

On Monday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also announced plans to release a new open-weight language model with reasoning capabilities.

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