WSJ: Apple in talks to invest in OpenAI as ChatGPT comes to iOS 18

OpenAI is seeking a new round of funding that values the company at over $100 billion, and a new report today says Apple is in negotiations to join in. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is “in talks to invest in OpenAI” alongside other companies, including Microsoft.

The report is light on details and says it “couldn’t be learned how much Apple or Microsoft will invest into OpenAI this round.” Microsoft, of course, is already a major investor in OpenAI and owns a 49% share of its profits.

From today’s report (Apple News+ link):

Apple is in talks to invest in OpenAI, a move that would cement ties to a partner integral to its efforts to gain ground in the artificial-intelligence race.

The investment would be part of a new OpenAI fundraising round that would value the ChatGPT maker above $100 billion, people familiar with the situation said.

It couldn’t be learned how much Apple or Microsoft will invest into OpenAI this round. To date, Microsoft has been the primary strategic investor into OpenAI. It owns a 49% share of the AI startup’s profits after investing $13 billion since 2019.

According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is seeking to raise several billion dollars through this round of fundraising. The report says that venture capital firm Thrive Capital is set to lead the round and will invest $1 billion.

Apple and OpenAI are teaming up to integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18 later this year. Through this partnership, ChatGPT will handle world knowledge requests in combination with Siri. Bloomberg has reported that Apple is not paying OpenAI as part of this partnership, nor is OpenAI paying Apple. Instead, Apple reportedly believes that the exposure the iOS 18 integration is giving OpenAI is “of equal or greater value” than cash.

Apple is expected to add other AI models to iOS 18 in addition to ChatGPT. At WWDC in June, Apple software engineering executive Craig Federighi hinted at potentially adding Google Gemini support. The decision to focus on ChatGPT at the start was because Apple wanted to “start with the best,” according to Federighi.

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