Apple allegedly wants to invest money in OpenAI
OpenAI is trying to inflate its company value to over 100 billion US dollars with new investment money. Apple could also get on board, according to reports.
ChatGPT app on an iPhone.
(Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock.com)
ChatGPT manufacturer OpenAI urgently needs fresh money to develop new models and continue operating its power-hungry services. The company is therefore currently conducting a major new investor round. As the Wall Street Journal reports, this time it is not only old backers who will be involved, but also new investors, including Apple for the first time. The aim is for OpenAI to be valued at over 100 billion US dollars for the first time.
Money from old and new investors
Old investors such as Microsoft and Thrive Capital (owned by Joshua Kushner, brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner) are also expected to be back in the new round. In total, OpenAI is expected to raise several billion dollars at once. Until now, Microsoft has been the ChatGPT operator's largest strategic partner. The software giant is also entitled to 49% of the profits from the for-profit part of OpenAI, having paid in a total of 13 billion dollars since 2019.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, negotiations with Apple are still ongoing. GPU specialist Nvidia, which has benefited massively from the AI boom, is also said to be among the potential new investors. This would have the advantage that OpenAI could possibly be supplied with its new AI accelerator chips faster and more extensively. The amounts involved were not initially disclosed – and it is also unclear how advanced the talks are.
The problem of neutrality that Apple wants
There have recently been reports that Apple could become an observer on OpenAI's supervisory board. The company had announced that it would incorporate ChatGPT directly into iOS, iPadOS and macOS in the future if users so wished. However, the idea was then withdrawn to avoid antitrust issues.
It is not yet clear whether the iPhone manufacturer will actually invest in OpenAI. Apple has so far positioned itself as a neutral partner and also wants to integrate Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude into its systems. If the company were to invest money in OpenAI, this could be viewed negatively.
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