Microsoft-Backed OpenAI Raises $175 Million For Startup Investment Fund: Report

OpenAI, the creator of viral AI chatbot ChatGPT has closed a $175 million investment fund focused on empowering other AI startups, says a SEC filing.

The fund, managed by OpenAI CEO Altman and COO Brad Lightcap, raised money from 14 investors. ( Image Source :Getty )

OpenAI, the creator of viral AI chatbot ChatGPT has closed a $175 million investment fund focused on empowering other AI startups, with backing from Microsoft and other investors, as per a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), says a report by news agency Bloomberg.

The company had previously said it would put $100 million into the startup fund.

However, the SEC filings show that the fund, called OpenAI Startup Fund I, is bigger than initially expected and is 75 per cent higher than the original plan, the report mentioned. Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to the report, the Bloomberg report added.

The fund, managed by OpenAI CEO Altman and COO Brad Lightcap, raised money from 14 investors, according to the SEC filing. OpenAI has already been investing in AI startups for some time. In recent months, ChatGPT and GPT-4 have become a rage globally.

OpenAI recently closed a more than $300 million share sale at a valuation between $27-$29 billion, according to the reports. Altman has "privately suggested OpenAI may try to raise as much as $100 billion in the coming years to achieve its aim of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) that is advanced enough to improve its own capabilities".

OpenAI in February this year launched the new subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, which is available for $20 a month.

Meanwhile, a new report has claimed that only around $15 million of donations given to OpenAI can actually be traced back to the Tesla CEO Elon Musk who has also reduced his claim of $100 million donation to the company, recent media reports say.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO always claimed he donated $100 million to the ChatGPT developer, which is now backed by Microsoft. Back in 2018, Musk tried to take control of OpenAI, but Sam Altman and OpenAI's other founders rejected his proposal. The outgoing Twitter CEO, in turn, walked away from OpenAI and reneged on a $1 billion planned donation, some reports suggest.