As Sam Altman-run OpenAI readies to close a potential $6.5 billion funding as early as next week, Apple has pulled out from the latest round, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. iPhone-maker has "fell out of talks to join the funding round."
While a tech giant like this is unlikely to put stakes into other companies, Apple was also the more surprising investment coming out from it. It happened after Apple stated that it will integrate ChatGPT 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 Corp. and graphics chip giant Nvidia have also been in discussions to participate in the funding round of OpenAI, where Microsoft is poised to invest around $1 billion. The firm had already invested $13 billion in the ChatGPT developer.
Venture capital firm Thrive Capital is leading the round, putting in about $1 billion. Other investors would likely include Tiger Global Management and UAE-backed firm MGX.
As reported, OpenAI is restructuring from a nonprofit into a for-profit firm in the first place.
In the meantime, three of the firms top executives quit the ChatGPT developer. Altman said that former head of security Matt Knight will be OpenAI's chief information security officer. Chief product officer Kevin Weil will continue to lead OpenAI's applied team, along with VP of engineering, Srinivas Narayanan. Josh Achiam will be the Chief Scientist at the AI company.
The company has also entered the world of search led by Google, launching SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine allowing a real-time search of information on the entire web.
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