Apple is in talks to invest in OpenAI, a move that would cement ties to a partner integral to Apple Intelligence, the Cupertino-based company’s effort to gain ground in the artificial intelligence race.
Tom Dotan and Aaron Tilley for The Wall Street Journal:
The investment would be part of a new OpenAI fundraising round that would value the ChatGPT maker above $100 billion, people familiar with the situation said. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that venture-capital firm Thrive Capital is leading the round, which will total several billion dollars, and Apple rival Microsoft is also expected to participate.
It couldn’t be learned how much Apple or Microsoft will invest into OpenAI this round. To date, Microsoft has been the primary strategic investor into OpenAI. It owns a 49% share of the AI startup’s profits after investing $13 billion since 2019.
Apple in June announced OpenAI as the first official partner for Apple Intelligence, its system for infusing AI features throughout its operating system… Some of the new AI tasks Apple announced would be handled by Apple’s own AI technology. For more complicated AI tasks, such as generating a written message, Apple would use OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Apple hopes to join with other companies and incorporate their generative AI into the new system… At [its WWDC] conference, Apple mentioned Google’s generative AI model, Gemini, as a potential partner. The company also has held partnership discussions with Meta as well as AI startups Anthropic and Perplexity, the Journal previously reported.
MacDailyNews Take: Such an investment could complicate partnerships with the likes of Google, Meta, Anthropich, etc.
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