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OpenAI is set to hit 700 million weekly active users for ChatGPT this week, up from 500 million in March, marking a more than fourfold year-over-year surge in growth, the company said Monday.
The figure spans all ChatGPT artificial intelligence products — free, Plus Pro, Enterprise, Team, and Edu — and comes as daily user messages surpassed 3 billion, according to the company. The growth rate is also accelerating, compared with 2.5 times year-over-year growth at this time last year.
“Every day, people and teams are learning, creating, and solving harder problems,” said Nick Turley, VP of product for ChatGPT, in announcing the benchmark.
OpenAI now has 5 million paying business users on ChatGPT, up from 3 million in June, as enterprises and educators increasingly integrate AI tools.
The milestone follows news last week that OpenAI has secured $8.3 billion from a syndicate of top investors — including Dragoneer Investment Group, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, Thrive Capital, Blackstone, TPG, T. Rowe Price, and Fidelity.
The investment is part of a SoftBank-led $40 billion fundraising round, according to a person familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named in order to discuss financial information. The raise was completed ahead of schedule and was five times oversubscribed.
OpenAI’s annual recurring revenue is now at $13 billion, up from $10 billion in June, with the company on track to surpass $20 billion by year-end.
The fresh capital and usage growth underscore surging investor appetite for AI platforms as competition heats up. Rival Anthropic is also in talks to raise up to $5 billion at a $170 billion valuation, following a $3.5 billion round earlier this year that valued the company at $61.5 billion.
WATCH: Anthropic to be valued at $170B in Iconiq-led funding
