Business | The age of the hectocorn
Generative AI is forcing America’s disrupters in chief to think differently
|SAN FRANCISCO AND SEATTLE |6 min read
A rare beast may soon lumber across the hills of Silicon Valley: not a $1bn unicorn, nor a $10bn decacorn, but a hectocorn—a startup valued at more than $100bn. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is understood to be in talks to raise $6.5bn from investors to fund the expansion dreams of its co-founder, Sam Altman. If it pulls off the deal, OpenAI’s valuation will be about $150bn, making it only the second ever $100bn-plus startup in America after SpaceX, a rocketry giant led by Elon Musk (who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and is now Mr Altman’s nemesis).
Explore more
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The age of the hectocorn”
From the September 21st 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents