Open AI is preparing for a new funding round that could value the company in excess of $100 billion. The round will be joined by Thrive Capital, the investment firm led by Joshua Kushner, which is expected to invest about $1 billion, said people directly involved in the deal.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman showed his confidence in Thrive and Kushner on X, saying, "There is no one I’d recommend more highly."
A number of other major technology companies are also in discussions to participate, according to people familiar with the matter (via WSJ). Microsoft has already heavily backed OpenAI, investing $1 billion in 2019 and billions more since, and is looking to increase its stake even further.
It is reportedly seeking an investment from Apple. In June, Apple said it would integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT into iOS, iPadOS and macOS devices later this year. "We're excited to partner with Apple to bring ChatGPT to their users in a new way," Altman said at the time. The deal would give hundreds of millions of users free access to ChatGPT through their Apple devices.
Chipmaker Nvidia is also in discussions about joining the round. The main supplier of the hardware required to power OpenAI's most sophisticated AI models, Nvidia benefits from OpenAI's success as much as OpenAI does from the new capital. Its GPUs are crucial for training massive language models such as ChatGPT but equally important for powering the resulting services.
Microsoft will remain one of OpenAI's largest investors. However, the company informed OpenAI last month that it would give up its observer seat on the company's board. Microsoft also hired the Inflection AI team to work on competitive offerings such as the AI coding assistant Copilot.
Also, one or more current OpenAI shareholders have been negotiating to sell their shares at a valuation of $103 billion. This could mean that the new round of funding could value the company even higher.
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