OpenAI prepares $10 billion joint venture with private equity funds
Reuters' interlocutors name TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital and Brookfield among the AI company's partners
OpenAI discusses $10 billion partnership with private equity funds/Photo: shutterstock.com/Mehaniq
OpenAI is in talks with private equity funds to form a joint venture to distribute its corporate products, Reuters quoted four sources familiar with the situation as saying. The preliminary valuation of this joint venture will be about $10 billion, with private equity funds investing about $4 billion in it, the Reuters sources said.
Details
According to the agency's interlocutors, private equity funds TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital and Brookfield may become OpenAI's partners in the joint venture, which is tentatively estimated at $10 bln (before investment attraction). It is expected that the joint structure will promote OpenAI solutions among portfolio companies of these funds and other corporate clients.
Such a partnership could accelerate the adoption of OpenAI technologies in the corporate sector while helping investment funds support companies in their portfolios that could be affected by the rapid proliferation of AI, Reuters' sources explained. Under the proposed partnership, private equity funds are expected to invest about $4 billion in the deal and will receive stakes in the joint venture as well as influence over how OpenAI technologies are deployed in those funds' portfolio companies, two Reuters sources said.
TPG will be the main investor, while Advent International, Bain Capital and Brookfield will act as co-founders. According to Reuters sources, all four funds will have seats on the board of directors of the joint venture. At the same time, the sources emphasized that the final decision has not been made yet and the plans may change.
OpenAI declined to comment on the joint venture plans. Advent, TPG and Brookfield also declined to comment, while Bain did not respond to Reuters' inquiries.
Context
OpenAI and its competitors are trying to convince more business customers to pay for AI services to offset huge technology development costs and maintain high valuations. These efforts are primarily focused on sectors such as financial services and healthcare, Bloomberg notes.
In late February, OpenAI attracted $110 billion in investment in the largest round of financing in the history of the company and the technology sector as a whole - Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank took part in the round. As part of the deal, the company was valued at $730 billion.
Following that, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in early March that the company would probably not increase its investment in OpenAI again before its IPO. Nvidia invested $30 billion in the AI company in its last round of funding for OpenAI.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
