Photo of Sam Altman by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan.
OpenAI has proven itself to be a prolific fundraiser, collecting billions of dollars from Microsoft and others to perfect its artificial intelligence software. Lately, it’s also been flexing its muscles as an investor in other AI startups, a strategy that could tie a generation of young companies to its machine-learning models and Microsoft’s cloud services.
San Francisco–based OpenAI has invested in at least 16 companies through a $100 million fund backed by Microsoft and other investors that launched in May 2021, according to The Information’s reporting. Just in the past month, OpenAI launched an accelerator, Converge, that has already invested in 10 companies. (See the chart below of OpenAI’s investments.)