OpenAI latest valuation at $86 billion in secondary sale (File)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 executives this month in San Francisco, New York and London, where he and other OpenAI executives pitched artificial intelligence for enterprise use, attendees told us services, and in some cases going head-to-head with financial backer Microsoft. Reuters.
The roadshow-like events illustrate how the company, which has sparked an explosion of generative artificial intelligence through its consumer products, is looking to add new revenue streams from businesses around the world — some of which may come from the home turf of its largest partners .
Three meetings with senior business executives – two of which took place in the United States last week and one in London on Monday – had not previously been reported.
Sam Altman spoke directly to more than 100 executives in each city at the event, according to attendees who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At each event, Sam Altman and COO Brad Lightcap provided product demos, including ChatGPT Enterprise (an enterprise-grade version of its famous chatbot that can generate text based on simple prompts), connecting customer applications to its Software that provides AI services (called APIs), as well as new products from it. Text-to-video model.
OpenAI promises that ChatGPT Enterprise customers’ data will not be used to train its models. In conversations with potential customers in industries such as finance, healthcare and energy, OpenAI executives highlighted a range of applications, such as call center management and translation. They note that more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies are already using consumer versions of their chatbots.
Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest investor, providing access to OpenAI technology through its Azure cloud and selling Microsoft 365 Copilot, a productivity tool powered by OpenAI’s enterprise-focused model.
Attendees said some executives in the event audience asked why they should pay for ChatGPT Enterprise if they were already Microsoft customers.
Sam Altman and Lightcap responded that paying for enterprise services allows them to work directly with the OpenAI team, obtain the latest models, and have more opportunities to obtain customized AI products.
OpenAI and Microsoft declined to comment.
OpenAI, which was last valued at $86 billion in secondary sales, has been trying to diversify its revenue streams since its chatbot ChatGPT exploded in popularity in late 2022. Sources say OpenAI is on track to achieve its revenue target of $1 billion in 2024.
While it tries to build new consumer products like the ChatGPT marketplace store, the company expects sales to businesses to become a more meaningful part of its revenue. Lightcap told Bloomberg that more than 600,000 people had signed up to use ChatGPT Enterprise and Team last week, up from about 150,000 in January.
Lightcap is OpenAI’s key executive focused on enterprise adoption, and he also spent time in Hollywood talking to studio executives to promote the company’s Sora video creation tool. The technology, which creates and refines videos based on users’ textual descriptions, is causing excitement and anxiety in the creative industry.
Two major Hollywood studios told Reuters they were seeking early access to begin exploring applications, despite some concerns about the source of the video used to train Sora, the reliability of the output and its ability to protect copyrighted works.
Fox and News Corp. also hosted Sam Altman at a leadership retreat last October, where he participated in a question-and-answer session, according to a person familiar with the matter.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
