OpenAI staff seek $6 billion share sale to SoftBank, Thrive Capital
The deal could value the ChatGPT maker at $500 billion, a significant jump from its current $300 billion valuation.
This reflects OpenAI's rapid growth in users and revenue, as well as fierce competition in the AI sector.
SoftBank, Thrive Capital, and Dragoneer Investment Group, all existing OpenAI investors, have not yet commented on the potential transaction.
Bloomberg News reported discussions are in early stages, with the final sale size subject to change.
The secondary share sale follows SoftBank's involvement in OpenAI's $40 billion primary funding round.
OpenAI's revenue doubled in the first seven months of 2025, hitting an annualized $12 billion run rate.
The company is projected to reach $20 billion in revenue by year-end, driven by ChatGPT's success.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI now boasts 700 million weekly ChatGPT users, up from 400 million in February. - Reuters
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Malay Mail
15 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Clean energy finance must keep pace with data centre boom — Nazrul Hazizi Noordin
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But behind this progress lies a looming challenge: a soaring energy demand. These data centres could soon account for as much as 30 per cent of the country's electricity use. While projections vary, experts warn that by 2035 their peak demand could swell to over 5,000 megawatts (MW). To put this into perspective, that is roughly equivalent to Singapore's total electricity consumption in 2023, or the output of five large coal plants, or enough to power 3.5 to 4 million average Malaysian homes for a year. That is a massive load for just one sector, placing immense strain on the national grid. While political actors often point to job creation and economic spillovers, the environmental costs payable by future generations yet to come are sobering. With 81 per cent of Malaysia's electricity in 2024 still generated from fossil fuels, meeting this new demand risks deepening dependence on carbon-intensive sources. At 5,000 MW, the sector could emit around 26 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, tantamount to adding 5.7 million petrol cars to the roads (more than a quarter of existing registered cars). Offsetting that footprint would require the carbon sequestration capacity of approximately 31 million hectares of forest in a year (almost the size of Malaysia's entire land area) or planting about 430 million tree seedlings and growing them for a decade. This is not a call for slowing digital development. Rather, the pace of investment in energy efficiency and clean energy must at least match, or ideally exceed, the sector's growth. Yet progress on both fronts remains far from adequate. By 2030, data centre utilisation density is projected to improve, from serving over 60,000 people per MW today to about 14,000 per MW. But this 80 per cent leap will still be easily outstripped by overall consumption growth. On the renewable side, the gap is even starker. The 5,000 MW of peak capacity data centres may require at a single point in time is equivalent to only half of Malaysia's total renewable energy output for the whole of 2023. This great shortfall is echoed at individual sites. AirTrunk's hyperscale facility in Johor, for example, has a solar-ready roof generating just 1 MW, barely 2 per cent of the energy needed for its current phase. The banking sector holds the keys to shifting this trajectory. That begins with rethinking their own lending philosophy. Financing efficiency and renewables can no longer be treated as a nice-to-have line item in their portfolios. It must rather be seen as a moral obligation. Because if it is treated as a matter of choice, it would never have been thought that there is anything inherently wrong with pouring money into 'dirty' energy production. This is not simply about doing the right thing for the planet. It is also about preserving their own existence. Factoring climate-related risks into stress testing and scenario analysis would likely paint a picture that their stranded assets are mounting as green technology becomes cheaper, regulations get tighter, and consumer climate consciousness spreads faster. At the end of the day, climate risk is financial risk. By 2030, data centre utilisation density is projected to improve, from serving over 60,000 people per MW today to about 14,000 per MW. — AFP pic Willingness alone, however, is not enough. Banks need innovative instruments that can move capital decisively. Two merit closer attention. At the consumption end, sustainability-linked financing (SLF) offers greater flexibility than traditional green loans, which restrict use of proceeds to environmental projects. SLF instead allows funding for general corporate purposes but ties pricing and terms to meeting predefined sustainability performance targets. For data centre operators, these could include improved power usage effectiveness, increased renewable energy procurement, on-site solar installation, or lower carbon emissions per megawatt-hour consumed. Meeting those targets triggers lower financing costs, nudging them to reduce fossil fuel reliance. On the supply side, the concept of debt-for-nature swaps, traditionally used in the sovereign debt space, could be adapted for corporate debtors, particularly energy companies seeking to pivot from fossil fuels. Under such a structure, debt is forgiven or repurchased at a discount by private investors, development banks, government agencies or philanthropic funds, in exchange for the company committing to redirect the freed-up amount into renewable projects. Though not yet mainstream, this approach presents a promising pathway for aligning corporate debt management with climate goals while building long-term energy resilience. Malaysia's rise as a regional data centre hub is inevitable. But without aligning its digital growth with clean energy finance, the country risks locking itself into a high-carbon future just as the world moves the other way. Investors and lenders must channel capital towards energy efficiency and renewables with the same urgency that is powering data centre expansion. Seizing this moment will speak volumes about their commitment to reaching net zero. * Dr Nazrul Hazizi Noordin is an assistant professor at the Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance, International Islamic University Malaysia. ** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
The Star
18 hours ago
- The Star
'You liar': Elon Musk and Sam Altman's AI battle erupts on social media
The feud between the two dates back to 2018, when Musk left the OpenAI board. — AFP The long-running rivalry between tech titans Sam Altman and Elon Musk reignited this week with a public clash over Apple's App Store rankings and alleged manipulation of the X algorithm. On Monday night, Musk threatened to sue Apple, accusing the company of "unequivocal antitrust violations" for allegedly giving preferential treatment to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which currently holds the top spot on the US App Store. "Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1," Musk wrote. He added that his company, xAI, "will take immediate legal action." Altman, CEO of OpenAI – which he co-founded with Musk in 2015 – quickly fired back. "This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn't like," Altman wrote, referencing a 2023 Platformer report detailing how Musk allegedly ordered changes to X's algorithm to boost his own visibility. The feud between the two dates back to 2018, when Musk left the OpenAI board. Since then, he has become one of Altman's most vocal critics, recently refiling a lawsuit in August over OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft. The exchange on Monday soon turned personal. "You got (3 million) views on your (expletive) post, you liar, far more than I've received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!" he wrote. Altman countered with a challenge: "Will you sign an affidavit that you have never directed changes to the X algorithm in a way that has hurt your competitors or helped your own companies?" He added that he would apologise if Musk could truthfully confirm it. The spat followed a CNBC interview last week in which Altman appeared to brush off Musk's criticisms. "I don't think about him that much," he said. Musk, meanwhile, claimed his Grok chatbot outperforms GPT-5, calling the latest OpenAI model "already worse" than his own. – San Francisco Chronicle/Tribune News Service
The Sun
a day ago
- The Sun
OpenAI staff seek $6 billion share sale to SoftBank, Thrive Capital
SAN FRANCISCO: Current and former OpenAI employees are in talks to sell nearly $6 billion worth of shares to investors including SoftBank Group and Thrive Capital. The deal could value the ChatGPT maker at $500 billion, a significant jump from its current $300 billion valuation. This reflects OpenAI's rapid growth in users and revenue, as well as fierce competition in the AI sector. SoftBank, Thrive Capital, and Dragoneer Investment Group, all existing OpenAI investors, have not yet commented on the potential transaction. Bloomberg News reported discussions are in early stages, with the final sale size subject to change. The secondary share sale follows SoftBank's involvement in OpenAI's $40 billion primary funding round. OpenAI's revenue doubled in the first seven months of 2025, hitting an annualized $12 billion run rate. The company is projected to reach $20 billion in revenue by year-end, driven by ChatGPT's success. Microsoft-backed OpenAI now boasts 700 million weekly ChatGPT users, up from 400 million in February. - Reuters
