Cathie Wood's Ark Venture Fund has reportedly invested in OpenAI's latest funding round, making it one of the largest in startup history.
What Happened: On Wednesday, Ark Venture Fund committed to investing a minimum of $250 million in OpenAI's latest funding round, reported Business Insider, citing three people familiar with the round.
This marks Ark's second investment in the AI firm which has made a new wave of generative AI technology since launching ChatGPT.
Previously in April also, Ark announced that it had acquired a stake in OpenAI, although it did not disclose the amount of the investment or the valuation it assigned to the company.
The Ark Venture Fund, which launched in 2022, has a history of investing in high-profile startups, including OpenAI's competitors Anthropic, Elon Musk's xAI and SpaceX, FigureAI, and Databricks.
OpenAI's latest funding round was reportedly led by Thrive Capital and has now reached a whopping $6.6 billion.
Other potential participants rumored to be involved include tech giants Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which has already invested about $13 billion in the AI company over the last five years, Nvidia Corporation, and Altimeter.
Apple withdrew from the talks early, but separate reports indicated that Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank Group Corporation was considering stepping in.
Ark Invest did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.
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Why It Matters: OpenAI's valuation has skyrocketed to $157 billion in its latest funding round. Despite notable exits from OpenAI and possible corporate restructuring, investors are still confident in the company's capacity to advance AI technology.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc. has launched a new AI chatbot named "Cedric," designed to be safer than ChatGPT created by OpenAI for internal use.
Amazon has reportedly been wary of using third-party AI tools like ChatGPT due to security concerns. Earlier this year, the e-commerce giant implemented formal guidelines prohibiting the use of external AI tools for business purposes.
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