Aug 30, 2024 - Technology

OpenAI's potential investors: World's most valuable companies

Axios

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks with Apple's Eddy Cue at an Apple event in June. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The world's three largest companies by market cap are all in talks to join the same OpenAI funding round that would value the ChatGPT maker at more than $100 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Why it matters: Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft — which heavily backs OpenAI already — all fear missing out on the potential upside of a business that CEO Sam Altman may one day take public, Axios' Hope King notes.

State of play: Each of the companies has a long-standing relationship with OpenAI.

Nvidia is "the dominant global maker of chips that power ChatGPT," The Journal writes.
Microsoft owns a 49% share of OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary.
Apple named OpenAI the first official partner for its coming Apple Intelligence system for its iPhone and other products.

Nvidia's strong earnings report this week also highlighted that the AI spending boom is still fervent, even as undercurrent of concern suggests generative AI might be overhyped.

The big picture: The battle for users among generative AI chatbots separately remains hotly contested, with Microsoft, Google, OpenAI and Meta all eager to get people to choose their chatbots, Axios' Ina Fried previously reported.

ChatGPT remains the leader among generative AI chatbots, but it's an intensely competitive space with the other big names in tech offering frequent updates in hopes of grabbing share.

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OpenAI's potential investors: World's most valuable companies

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