OpenAI says it has completed a deal to raise $US6.6 billion ($9.6 billion) in new funding, giving the artificial intelligence company a $US157 billion ($228 billion) valuation and bolstering its efforts to build the world’s leading generative AI technology.

The deal is one of the largest private investments, and makes OpenAI one of the three largest venture-backed start-ups, alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok owner ByteDance. The size of the investment underscores the tech industry’s belief in the power of AI, and its appetite for the extremely costly research powering its advancement.

Bloomberg