Reddit announces IPO plans, strikes $60 billion deal with Google for AI training using its posts
artificial intelligence (AI) models and enhancing services such as Google Search, as per an AP report. As part of the agreement, Reddit gains access to Google AI models to enhance its internal site search and other features, it added. Reddit did not respond to queries.
In a separate statement, the San Francisco-based company announced plans for its initial public offering (IPO). The company aims to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RDDT. It also reported a net income of $18.5 million in the October-December quarter on February 21, marking its first profit in two years.
Reddit's revenue for the same period stood at $249.8 million. These numbers were reported in a filing with the US SEC. The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has emerged as a significant shareholder in Reddit, as per the regulatory filing detailing its intentions for an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported.
Entities connected to Altman hold 8.7 percent of Reddit's outstanding shares, as revealed in the S-1 filing published on February 22. This stake comprises 789,456 Class A shares and 11.4 million Class B shares, the Bloomberg report said. Notably, Advance Magazine Publishers Inc., affiliated with the Newhouse family publishing empire, holds the majority of Reddit's shares, with approximately a third of the voting power.
Altman maintains longstanding connections with the San Francisco-based social media firm, having been part of the inaugural class at the Y Combinator accelerator in 2005 alongside Reddit co-founders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. Additionally, Altman briefly served as the company's interim CEO for eight days following the resignation of former CEO Yishan Wong. This deal is a significant step for
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