OpenAI Leads Financing of Andrew Mason’s Descript at $500 Million–Plus Valuation

OpenAI, whose software for generating original text and images is galvanizing interest in artificial intelligence, has agreed to lead an investment of tens of millions of dollars in Descript, an audio and video editing app, at a valuation of around $550 million, according to two people with direct knowledge of the investment. Groupon co-founder Andrew Mason founded Descript, which uses AI for some features, five years ago.

The deal deepens OpenAI’s relationship with other AI-powered startups as the San Francisco company discusses a major new financing from Microsoft after investors last year valued it at nearly $20 billion.