Apple pulls out from OpenAI’s potential $6.5 billion funding round

SAN FRANCISCO: As Sam Altman-run OpenAI prepares to close a potential $6.5 billion funding as early as next week, Apple has reportedly pulled out from the latest round.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, the iPhone maker has “fell out of talks to join the funding round”.

Apple’s involvement was surprising as it is rare for the tech giant to invest in external companies. The reports surfaced after Apple announced a ChatGPT integration into Siri.

“Apple is no longer in talks to participate in an OpenAI funding round expected to raise as much as $6.5 billion, an 11th hour end to what would have been a rare investment by the iPhone maker in another major Silicon Valley company,” the report mentioned.

Microsoft and graphics chip giant Nvidia have also been in talks to participate in the OpenAI funding round where Microsoft is likely to invest around $1 billion. Microsoft has already invested $13 billion in the ChatGPT developer.

As per the report, venture capital firm Thrive Capital is leading the round and putting in around $1 billion. Other investors are likely to be Tiger Global Management and UAE-backed firm MGX.

The report said that OpenAI is also in the process of restructuring from a nonprofit into a for-profit firm.

Meanwhile, three top executives — including Chief Technical Officer Mira Murati — have left the ChatGPT developer. Altman said that Matt Knight, formerly head of security, will be OpenAI’s chief information security officer.

Chief product officer Kevin Weil and VP of engineering, Srinivas Narayanan, will continue to lead OpenAI’s applied team. Josh Achiam will be the Chief Scientist at the AI company.

The company has also forayed into the search market dominated by Google, with launching SearchGPT which is an AI-powered search engine offering real-time access to information across the web.