According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is seeking a new round of financing with a valuation of more than $100 billion, and Apple is talking to other companies, including Microsoft and Nvidia, about investing in OpenAI.
Apple is reportedly in talks to invest in OpenAI, a move that would cement a relationship with a partner critical to its progress in the AI race. According to people familiar with the matter, the investment will be part of OpenAI’s new round of funding, which will value OpenAI at more than $100 billion (IT home note: about 713.188 billion yuan).
It’s not clear how much Apple or Microsoft will invest in OpenAI this round. To date, Microsoft has been a major strategic investor in OpenAI. Microsoft owns 49 percent of OpenAI’s profits after investing $13 billion in it since 2019.
OpenAI is reportedly trying to raise billions of dollars with this funding round. Venture Capital firm Thrive Capital will lead the round and will invest $1 billion.
Apple will integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18 later this year, and through this partnership, ChatGPT will be combined with Siri to handle knowledge requests. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple did not pay OpenAI, and OpenAI did not pay Apple. Instead, Apple believes that the exposure that the integration of ChatGPT into iOS 18 will bring to OpenAI is worth as much or more than cash.