PANews reported on August 29 that according to CNBC, OpenAI is in talks for a round of financing that will value the artificial intelligence startup at more than $100 billion. According to people familiar with the matter, Thrive Capital will lead the round and will invest $1 billion. Microsoft, OpenAI's largest supporter, also participated in this round of financing. Since 2019, Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI and currently owns a 49% share of the company's profits. Sarah Friar, OpenAI's chief financial officer, released a memo stating that negotiations for a new round of financing are still in the early stages and funds are being raised for computing and operating operations. It is reported that earlier this year, OpenAI's valuation rose to $80 billion from $29 billion last year. Previously, OpenAI's annualized revenue exceeded $2 billion. The company began to grow after launching the ChatGPT chatbot at the end of 2022, and continued to launch products for enterprises and expand to AI-generated photos and videos. OpenAI announced last week that it would launch a prototype of its search engine called SearchGPT, which aims to provide users with "fast, timely answers with clear and relevant sources." The company said it eventually plans to integrate the tool into its ChatGPT chatbot, which is currently being tested among a small group of users.