The latest financing round — led by Thrive Capital, a US venture capital firm that plans to invest $1 billion — brought in $6.6 billion and pushed the company’s valuation to $157 billion. At the same time, OpenAI is warning investors away from rivals like Anthropic, xAI and Safe Superintelligence (SSI), a startup launched by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.
Microsoft on board, Apple shies away
Microsoft, which like Thrive has previously invested several billion dollars in OpenAI, also wants to participate in this round. But Apple, which was also interested in investing, has since dropped out, according to Reuters.
One reason for Apple’s change of heart could be internal turmoil caused by the board’s plans to transform OpenAI into a for-profit company. Following the announcement of those plans, there were a number of key departures at OpenAI, most notably the departure of CTO Mira Murati.