OpenAI has closed a $40 billion funding round, a record for a private tech firm. The infusion gives the nine-year-old San Francisco startup a $300 billion valuation making it the second most richly apprised private firm in the world, second only to SpaceX at $350 billion and tied with ByteDance, according to CNBC. The round was led by SoftBank Group contributing $30 billion, which likely gives the Japanese holding company the second largest stake, after Microsoft, which is said to have received a commitment for 49 percent of any profits in exchange for nearly $14 billion.

The current raise also includes $10 billion from a syndicate of investors that CNBC says includes Microsoft, as well as Altimeter, Coatue Management and Thrive Capital.

The new funding will initially issue in a $10 billion tranche, followed by the balance of $30 billion by the end of 2025, but only if it succeeds in restructuring as a for-profit entity by December 31.

“OpenAI plans to move control of the company to a public benefit corporation, or PBC, which is a for-profit corporation designed to create public and social good,” writes The New York Times, adding that “SoftBank will have the option to reduce its total contribution to $20 billion” if it doesn’t restructure by the end of the year.

The structural shift from non-profit to for-profit appears to be a tricky business for OpenAI — potentially complicated by a February bid by xAI owner Elon Musk and a group of investors (including Endeavor founder Ari Emanuel, now executive chairman of the WME Group) to buy the company.

“If you’re the nonprofit’s board, you now have a fresh headache on your hands: Musk’s $97.4 billion sets a sky-high benchmark you’d have to explain turning down,” writes the Marketing AI Institute.

Although the new valuation seems to have helped OpenAI clear that hurdle, NYT reports “the bid could still complicate [OpenAI CEO Sam] Altman’s efforts to separate the company from the non-profit board and raise the billions of dollars that OpenAI needs to build new technologies.”

CNBC notes about $18 billion of the new funding is earmarked for the Stargate Project, the AI data center venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle. President Trump joined the partners in announcing Stargate at the White House.

In a news post, OpenAI says the support “will help us continue building AI systems that drive scientific discovery, enable personalized education, enhance human creativity, and pave the way toward AGI that benefits all of humanity,” a reference to artificial general intelligence. On a more immediate level the company says it will enable it to “deliver increasingly powerful tools for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week.”