AI & Models
OpenAI secures $110 billion as user base nears 1 billion
OpenAI has raised $110 billion in private funding and reached 900 million weekly active users, with the funding round remaining open for additional investors.
On Friday, OpenAI announced that its AI chatbot product, ChatGPT, has reached 900 million weekly active users. The company utilizes weekly active users as a core metric for product engagement, tracking the number of unique individuals who interact with the platform within any given seven-day period. Alongside this milestone, OpenAI shared that it now has 50 million paying subscribers. The company shared these new numbers as part of its announcement that it has raised $110 billion in private funding—which refers to capital raised from private investors rather than public markets—marking one of the largest private funding rounds in history.
The historic funding round was completed at a $730 billion pre-money valuation, which is defined as the valuation of a company before the new investment capital is added. According to OpenAI, the funding round remains open, and the company expects more investors to join. The total private funding raised stands at $110 billion, which is distinct from the individual contributions of the participating investors. This total includes the following investments:
- A $50 billion investment from Amazon
- A $30 billion investment from Nvidia
- A $30 billion investment from SoftBank
The new weekly active user figure represents a jump of 100 million users from the 800 million users that OpenAI previously reported in October 2025. This expansion puts the chatbot within striking distance of 1 billion users. OpenAI reported that its subscriber growth has accelerated significantly at the start of 2026, noting that January and February are on track to be the largest months for new subscribers in its history. The company stated: “Subscriber momentum accelerated meaningfully to start the year, with January and February on track to be the largest months for new subscribers in our history.” OpenAI also noted that people use ChatGPT to learn, write, plan, and build. The company explained that as usage scales, the product improves in ways people feel immediately, specifically through faster responses, higher reliability, stronger safety, and more consistent performance.
Why it matters
This funding round represents a historic capital injection into AI, signaling continued investor confidence in OpenAI’s scaling strategy and product adoption as it approaches the 1 billion user milestone.