OpenAI's valuation of $300 billion exceeds financing of $8.3 billion! Annual revenue of $13 billion, weekly active users break 800 million

OpenAI recently completed a round of financing totaling $8.3 billion, with a valuation of $300 billion, exceeding its initial target of $7.5 billion and finishing the round months ahead of schedule. (Background: Anthropic is facing a trillion-dollar copyright lawsuit for using 7 million books to train Claude! The mad rush of AI giants and the legal boundaries.) (Additional context: Meta's revenue exceeded expectations, increasing investments in AI, with stock surging 12%, while Microsoft's Azure cloud profits reached new highs, putting its market value at $4 trillion.) Artificial Intelligence (AI) has once again ignited global capital enthusiasm! According to a report by the New York Times, OpenAI recently completed a financing round of $8.3 billion, exceeding its original target of $7.5 billion by five times and finishing the round months ahead of schedule. Fundraising Scale and Market Reaction OpenAI initially planned to raise $7.5 billion by the end of 2025 as part of its $40 billion financing plan announced in March this year. Previously, SoftBank had committed to providing OpenAI with $30 billion in funding by the end of the year. This round of financing was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, contributing $2.8 billion, which is one of the largest single venture capital investments to date. Additionally, this financing attracted numerous new investors, including private equity firms Blackstone and TPG, as well as mutual fund management company T. Rowe Price. Other participants included Fidelity, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital, and D1 Capital Partners, among other well-known investors. Market analysis indicates that by completing an astonishing fundraising round ahead of schedule, OpenAI is setting a new benchmark for capital operations for other AI startups, raising the valuation threshold for subsequent projects. Growth Flywheel: Revenue and Users Soar Simultaneously Reports indicate that OpenAI's rapid accumulation of revenue and user data has significantly contributed to its $300 billion valuation. Data shows that this AI giant's annual recurring revenue (ARR) has reached $13 billion, a substantial increase from the $10 billion reported in June, with an official goal to exceed $20 billion by the end of 2025. Additionally, the number of paid commercial ChatGPT users increased from 3 million a few months ago to 5 million; the number of weekly active users rose from 100 million at the end of 2023 to 800 million at the beginning of 2025, making a comeback after temporarily dropping to 500 million in April, as it races toward the goal of 1 billion users by year-end. Experts liken this rapid cycle to a 'dual growth flywheel of revenue and users'; through model upgrades like GPT-4o, pricing strategies, and collaboration with Microsoft Azure cloud, OpenAI is continuously expanding its subscription scale and reducing marginal costs. Opportunities and Challenges It is worth mentioning that the enormous GPU computing demand and customer acquisition costs remain pressure points that OpenAI must control; at the same time, intensifying AI competition and future regulatory uncertainties may also affect OpenAI's profitability curve. While OpenAI is on a rapid growth path, how it balances cost control, technological moat, and compliance challenges will determine its ability to maintain its position as an industry leader in the long term. Related Reports Backed by the soaring stock of Fat Penguin $PENGU, can Abstract Chain break through among the L2s? FinTech × Blockchain ecosystem co-construction: Taiwan's three major forums focus on building a digital financial and supply chain hub in September. AI privacy crash 'ChatGPT conversations' exposed in front of the law; Altman: I'm afraid to input personal data, hard to know who will get the information. "OpenAI's valuation of $300 billion exceeds financing of $8.3 billion! Annual revenue of $13 billion, weekly active users break 800 million" This article was first published by BlockTempo (BlockTempo - the most influential blockchain news media).