March 31 (Reuters) - OpenAI said on Monday it would

raise up to $40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank

Group at a $300 billion valuation to advance AI

research, expand computational infrastructure and enhance its

tools.

The Japanese tech investment group said in a statement that

it has agreed to fund OpenAI with $10 billion in mid-April and

an additional $30 billion in December, contingent on the AI firm

transitioning to for-profit by the end of the year.

SoftBank plans to syndicate out $10 billion of its total

investment to other co-investors it did not name. A person

familiar with the matter told Reuters that the remainder of the

funding would come from Microsoft ( MSFT ), Coatue Management,

Altimeter Capital and Thrive Capital.

If OpenAI's restructuring fails, SoftBank said its total

investment amount in the round would drop to $20 billion.

OpenAI said it looks to deliver increasingly powerful tools

for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week.

Investor enthusiasm for the artificial intelligence sector

has surged significantly in recent years, driven by the

widespread adoption of chatbots and the emergence of

sophisticated AI agents.

Enterprises have integrated AI solutions to streamline their

operations and enhance customer experiences, while venture

capital firms compete to back promising AI startups.

San Francisco-based OpenAI had closed a $6.6 billion funding

round in October, which valued the company at $157 billion. The

new funding round would nearly double the valuation of the AI

startup.

"OpenAI has very ambitious plans on many fronts and needs a

lot of capital to achieve these goals," D.A. Davidson & Co

analyst Gil Luria said.

"The list of investors wanting to support that scope has

shrunk and may be largely limited to SoftBank, which itself may

not have the necessary capital."

SoftBank plans to finance the first $10 billion through

borrowings from Mizuho Bank and other financial firms.

OpenAI is partnering with SoftBank and Oracle to

establish a network of data centers under the $500-billion

Stargate project, aimed at powering AI workloads in the United

States.

Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI also plans to revamp its structure,

saying it would create a public benefit corporation to attract

more investment and resources while balancing shareholder

interests with public benefits.

U.S. law firm Morrison Foerster advised SoftBank, the firm

said.

With the latest funding, OpenAI will join the ranks of the

most valuable private companies, such as SpaceX, China's

ByteDance and Stripe.