It looks like isn't the only company at their offices. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is also rolling in dough. Microsoft popping champagne A from TechCrunch indicates OpenAI has raised $300 million in venture funding, including from billionaire (and longtime Elon Musk friend) Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Sequoia Capital, which Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, a decision they came to . Other VC investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and K2 Global. new report famously backed regret later According to the report, the latest round of funding values OpenAI at between $27 billion and $29 billion, which would mean it's now more valuable than (~$24.6B), (~$22B), Snap Inc. (~$14B), and even (~$7.1B). eBay Roblox Dropbox Inc. VC funds usually like betting on promising ventures, and OpenAI is a no brainer. At its current valuation, it's only a matter of time before it joins the likes of tech titans. We're talking , , , big. Amazon Meta Google OpenAI is famously backed by Microsoft, which entered a $10 billion strategic partnership with the company soon after the launch of ChatGPT. But it wasn't the first time Microsoft invested in OpenAI; their association actually began in , when Microsoft made an initial investment in the budding startup. 2019 A about OpenAI is that one of its founders is /SpaceX/ -CEO Elon Musk who not only recently urged the company to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, but also announced plans to launch his own generative AI called . little known fact Twitter Tesla TruthGPT At this point in time, there's nothing that indicates that TruthGPT will surpass the success of ChatGPT, but hey, that's not going to stop Musk. That said, it's hard not to feel bad for Musk who left OpenAI in 2018 due to… let's say, with the OpenAI management. In the years since, OpenAI has transformed into a force to be reckoned with, and had Musk still been with the company, he likely would have been billions richer than he already is at the moment. creative differences Meta still full-steam ahead on the Metaverse (Kinda!) 🚂 Ah, the metaverse. They say Zuckerberg's fate with the metaverse is written in the web3, let's just hope it's not a verse about getting ! Zucked While Microsoft, , and are duking it out in the AI space, Zuckerberg has had his eyes on the metaverse for years. That bet has largely paid off, with Zuckerberg losing more and more of his net worth by the day. Amazon Google not But the biggest losers of Zuckerberg's ambition have been employees, thousands of whom have been laid off back to back as the middle-aged CEO balances investor demands with his ambitions. For now, investors are taking a sigh of relief after the company posted better than expected financial results. Meta Meta, the parent of , , and WhatsApp, a first-quarter revenue of $28.10 billion, of $27.66 billion and up 3% year-over-year. Despite the revenue beat, Meta’s net income company-wide was down 24% year-over-year, from $7.47 billion to $5.71 billion. Facebook Instagram reported beating expectations Still, investors believe the company is headed in the right direction, especially considering that Zuckerberg is changing his tune on the metaverse to (who would've thought 🙄). Still, Zuckerberg hasn't given up on the metaverse yet. focus more on AI "A narrative has developed that we’re somehow moving away from focusing on the metaverse vision, so I just want to say up front that that’s not accurate," Zuckerberg was following the release of the company's earnings release. "We’ve been focusing on AI and the metaverse, and we will continue to." quoted as saying But it's not all rosy for Zuckerberg; the company's biggest stakeholder — its employees — questioned his leadership during an hour-long town hall meeting recently. According to (which is owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos btw.), employees the CEO why they should have confidence in his leadership, especially considering the thousands Meta has had to lay off Zuckerberg flew too close to the sun. The Washington Post asked because Now, morale is low, particularly given that Meta is expected to of another 4,000 employees in the near future as part of the it announced in March. Whether Meta can navigate these turbulent times, only time will tell. For now, its earnings have bought it a lifeline. let go 10,000 cuts Meta ranked #25 on HackerNoon's this week. Facebook was in the #1 spot, while Instagram was trending on #35. Tech Company Rankings 👋 You’re reading of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. part 2 Part 1 here complete In Other News.. 📰 Microsoft is for despite facing a setback in the UK. still vying Activision-Blizzard Geoffrey Hinton, the 'Godfather of AI', recently to speak about the dangers of artificial intelligence. quit Google Mastercard will expand its cryptocurrency payment card programme by seeking more partnerships with crypto firms, Reuters . reported The European Union is likely to reach a this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence law. political agreement And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon Featured image generated using Kadinsky 2 with the following prompt: “stock chart going up”

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