Odaily reports that according to people familiar with the matter cited by The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is in early negotiations for a major fundraising round, with the company's valuation estimated at $340 billion, more than double the figure from last October. The maker of ChatGPT is discussing a round of up to $40 billion. Previous reports have suggested that SoftBank Group is considering investing $15 billion to $25 billion in OpenAI. OpenAI and other top AI companies have pledged billions of dollars to invest in data, talent, and physical infrastructure to support the development of more advanced AI systems. In recent days, Chinese AI company DeepSeek has released a competitive model, which has raised questions about this spending frenzy. (Jinshi)