The media reports that the Vision Fund, which is part of the ownership structure of the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank, intends to invest $500 million in the latest round of funding for OpenAI.
The journalists published the mentioned information, referring to insiders who are aware of the Vision Fund’s plans, which do not belong to the category of public information.
In September, the media reported that OpenAI, which is one of the main players in the global artificial intelligence industry, was raising $6.5 billion in convertible notes.
Journalists also released information according to which Apple abandoned its plans to participate in the financing round of the mentioned company.
It is worth noting that OpenAI, in a certain sense, is the founder of the currently observed boom in artificial intelligence. The corresponding process began after in 2022, this company launched ChatGPT, a chatbot based on machine intelligence. The specified virtual product has impressed the consumer audience with its cognitive abilities, which allow it to effectively process information and generate original content, focusing on user requests and prompts. ChatGPT is currently the most popular artificial intelligence-based chatbot in the world.
According to media reports, as part of the current large funding round, OpenAI is valued at $150 billion. This indicator was previously fixed before it became known about the planned investments from the Vision Fund.
At the same time, the media notes that the final market capitalization of the developer of the world’s most popular chatbot based on artificial intelligence will depend on its ability to change the corporate structure. Also, in this case, an important impact factor may be the lifting of the profit cap for investors.
Vision Fund has never interacted with the ChatGPT developer in the past in the context of the financial aspect.
Last week, the media released information according to which OpenAI is working on a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit corporation, which will not be controlled by a non-profit board.
Against the background of news about investments in the ChatGPT developer, the value of SoftBank shares showed an increase of 3.4% on Tuesday morning, October 1. The company’s securities have regained some of the positions that were lost during the massive sell-off in Tokyo after the election of the ruling party’s leadership election.
SoftBank currently has plans related to investing in the artificial intelligence chip manufacturing area. It is worth noting that the demand for appropriate microcircuits is growing since these products are critically necessary for training and ensuring the subsequent functioning of machine intelligence systems the number of which is rapidly increasing. SoftBank also has intentions related to the implementation of financial injections into the Japanese artificial intelligence infrastructure. Moreover, this company aims to develop a Japanese large language model.
It is worth noting that in June, the Vision Fund invested in Perplexity AI, a competitor to the ChatGPT developer.
As we have reported earlier, Mira Murati to Leave OpenAI.
Serhii Mikhailov
Serhii’s track record of study and work spans six years at the Faculty of Philology and eight years in the media, during which he has developed a deep understanding of various aspects of the industry and honed his writing skills; his areas of expertise include fintech, payments, cryptocurrency, and financial services, and he is constantly keeping a close eye on the latest developments and innovations in these fields, as he believes that they will have a significant impact on the future direction of the economy as a whole.
