Investors questioned OpenAI's $852bn valuation amid shifting priorities - FT

The $852 billion valuation of the most valuable artificial intelligence developer OpenAI is being increasingly questioned by its own investors, the UK's Financial Times (FT) has found out. This comes as the creator of ChatGPT shifts its focus from the consumer to the highly profitable corporate market in an attempt to impose competition on startup Anthropic with its Claude chatbot.

OpenAI's new strategy, underpinned by a series of recent deals and the closure of a number of projects, is aimed at maintaining ChatGPT's dominant position in the consumer segment, while at the same time competing with Anthropic for the high-margin market for enterprise AI tools. However, investors fear that such changes ahead of OpenAI's IPO will make the startup vulnerable to both Anthropic and a recovering Google, the FT writes.

One of OpenAI's early investors called it "a completely unfocused company." "You have ChatGPT, a business with a billion users growing at 50-100% a year, why are you even talking about the corporate market and code?" - he told a British newspaper. Another market participant who has invested in both OpenAI and Anthropic said that to justify the investment in the latest round of funding, OpenAI should be valued at an IPO valuation of at least $1.2 trillion. He said OpenAI risks being "in no man's land" as its valuation becomes increasingly difficult to justify against Anthropic, which is half the price, according to the paper.

Data from derivatives markets shows that demand for Anthropic securities is now higher, with investors willing to pay a premium over OpenAI shares for a stake in Anthropic for the first time, the FT states. "There is room [in the market] for both, but fundamentally there is a number one and number two dynamic, and the former will benefit disproportionately," Roy Luo, a partner in the Iconiq Capital fund, which has invested more than $1bn in Anthropic and less in OpenAI, told the newspaper. "We made our choice," he added.

OpenAI maintains its leadership in the consumer segment thanks to the success of chatbot ChatGPT. Last month, its head Sam Altman raised $122 billion from a group of investors at a company valuation of $852 billion. Despite this, OpenAI is optimizing costs and scrapping some of its ambitious projects. Disney's $1 billion investment in Sora video service has been derailed because of its closure. OpenAI has abandoned data centers in Britain and Texas, and its $100 billion deal with Nvidia has been significantly cut.

According to FT sources, the priority is to develop a Codex tool for businesses, which could eventually become more important than ChatGPT. OpenAI aims to make this software easier for users without strong technical skills.

OpenAI CEO Altman expects to take the company public ahead of Anthropic. The listing of the latter for more than $60 billion could take place in October 2026, Bloomberg wrote. Meanwhile, OpenAI remains under pressure to meet revenue and user base growth targets. To increase revenue, the company in February began showing ads to users without paid subscriptions.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor