OpenAI Asks Investors to Fork Over $250 Million

Surely if you’re a reader of this newsletter, you know by now that OpenAI is in late-stage talks to raise a mammoth funding round that could value it at $150 billion. What you may not know is that the company has asked investors to fork over a minimum of $250 million, according to people with knowledge of the terms. 

To recap, OpenAI is closing in on a new financing of between $5 billion and $7 billion in a round led by Thrive Capital, which is committing $1 billion. Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple are in talks to invest. These tech companies’ portion of the round is expected to total $2 billion to $3 billion, one of the people said, though it's unclear if the tech giants are committing cash, or a mix of cash and other resources, like computing power. 

Tiger Global Management and the Abu Dhabi AI investment firm MGX are also in discussions to make an investment in the round. Some of these investors, like Tiger, have begun to solicit interest for special purpose vehicles, which allow investors to pool money to invest in a specific company—in this case, OpenAI. These SPVs could help investors make good on their commitments without overweighting their main funds in OpenAI shares.