Two more tech giants may join the new funding round that OpenAI is rumored to be raising.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported today that Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. may participate in the investment. OpenAI is expected to raise several billion dollars at a valuation that could exceed $100 billion. That’s up from the $80 billion it was reportedly worth in February.
On Wednesday, multiple publications reported that Thrive Capital will lead the round with a $1 billion contribution. Microsoft Corp., OpenAI’s largest investor, may up its stake as well. The software and cloud computing giant has so far backed the ChatGPT developer to the tune of $13 billion, much of which was provided in the form of cloud infrastructure.
The report that Apple could invest in OpenAI comes a few months after the companies inked a high-profile product partnership. The iPhone maker will use ChatGPT to power Apple Intelligence, an upcoming suite of artificial intelligence features for its devices. The features are expected to roll out later this year.
As part of the update, Siri will gain the ability to direct complicated user requests that it can’t answer effectively to an OpenAI model. Additionally, ChatGPT will be integrated into Writing Tools, one of the new AI features included in Apple Intelligence. The capability will allow users to proofread, rewrite and summarize the text they enter into iOS apps.
Nvidia already has stakes in several of the ChatGPT developer’s top rivals. In early June, Reuters reported that the chipmaker backed a $450 million funding round for Cohere Inc., which develops enterprise-focused large language models. A few days later, Nvidia joined a $645 million funding round into competing LLM provider Mistral AI SAS.
Shortly after the investment, Mistral and Nvidia released a jointly developed language model optimized for the latter company’s chips. They’ve since introduced multiple smaller versions of the model that require less hardware. The neural networks are available in Nvidia’s NIM container format, which makes it easier to deploy AI software on the company’s graphics cards.
Large enterprises often require the ability to deploy important software on-premises. If OpenAI eventually decides to provide that option to users of its LLMs, a technical partnership with Nvidia of the kind that Mistral AI detailed following its recent funding round might prove to be beneficial. Using technologies such as its NIM container format, Nvidia could help optimize the ChatGPT developer’s models for on-premises AI clusters powered by its graphics cards.
Recent reports suggest that OpenAI may seek to reduce its reliance on the chipmaker’s products in the longer term. Last month, The Information reported that the company has held talks with Broadcom Inc. and other semiconductor suppliers about designing a custom machine learning accelerator. It’s unclear whether OpenAI is developing the processor solely for internal use or may also seek to sell it to other companies.