Amid rumors of executive departures and plans to transition into a for-profit company leading to a breakdown, Apple has withdrawn from OpenAI's financing negotiations.

It is reported that OpenAI's current round of financing plans to raise about 6.5 billion US dollars and will be completed next week. If the fund negotiation of this round of financing by the company is not yet completed, participants and investment amounts may change.

Apple has withdrawn from the financing negotiations with OpenAI.

According to the latest reports from foreign media, Apple has recently withdrawn from the negotiations to participate in OpenAI's round of financing of about 6.5 billion US dollars.

However, Microsoft and Nvidia have been in talks to participate, with Microsoft expected to increase its investment by about 1 billion US dollars. The company had previously invested 13 billion US dollars in the company.

It is reported that OpenAI and Apple once had a "honeymoon period"—at this year's Global Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, Apple announced a collaboration with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and the new macOS. Siri can access ChatGPT to provide suggestions when needed.

However, at the end of July, Apple's personal intelligent system Apple Intelligence was first launched on the iPhone, which did not incorporate ChatGPT. The plan is to launch ChatGPT's special features on the iPhone next year.

There are netizens speculating that apple originally wanted to invest in OpenAI because Cook had seen the demonstration of OpenAI's mysterious project "Strawberry" and GPT-5.

However, it is worth noting that Thrive Capital, a well-known investment company that previously led the last round of financing for OpenAI, has once again invested over $1 billion in OpenAI's current $6.5 billion financing round. The institution also stated that if OpenAI achieves its revenue target, Thrive Capital may reinvest $1 billion at the same valuation next year.

As a major investor in this round, Thrive Capital also enjoys an unusual benefit: by 2025, they can choose to invest up to $1 billion in OpenAI at the same valuation if it remains unchanged.

It is reported that OpenAI's current financing round is in the form of convertible bonds and is expected to be completed by the end of next week. OpenAI's valuation is expected to reach $150 billion, consolidating its position as one of the highest valued technology companies in history.

This valuation determines whether the company can complete a complex restructuring to eliminate the control of the non-profit board of directors and remove the cap on investor returns.

Currently, there is no specific timeline for OpenAI's transformation plan, but if the company fails to become profitable within two years, its financing will convert to debt.

OpenAI may need to continue raising funds next year.

It is reported that OpenAI's revenue expectations this year may far exceed CEO Sam Altman's earlier prediction of $1 billion, with main revenue sources coming from selling services to enterprises and subscriptions to chatbots.

It is expected that ChatGPT's revenue this year will reach $2.7 billion, higher than the $0.7 billion in 2023, with $1 billion coming from other companies using its technology, and approximately 10 million ChatGPT users paying the company $20 per month.

In addition, OpenAI expects its revenue to soar from $3.7 billion in 2024 to $11.6 billion next year, and is expected to reach $100 billion in 2029.

Although the company's monthly revenue reached $0.3 billion in August, this year's expected losses could be as high as $5 billion, mainly due to the costs of running its services, employee salaries, office rent, and other expenses.

Reportedly, the use of ChatGPT alone at one point cost OpenAI $0.7 million per day.

Based on these loss pressures, the operating costs of ChatGPT may become even more expensive in the coming years.

OpenAI expects to raise the subscription price of ChatGPT to $22 by the end of this year, and will significantly increase it to $44 within the next 5 years. Over 1 million third-party developers use OpenAI's technology to support their own services.

According to OpenAI's funding materials, OpenAI will need to continue fundraising next year, as its expenses increase with the number of people using its products, which is why there have been forecasts that OpenAI will IPO as early as next year.