SoftBank To Invest $500M In OpenAI 鈥� Report

Chris Metinko

鈥檚 $6.5 billion round that reportedly will value the AI giant at $150 billion may have picked up another big-named investor. 鈥檚 will invest $500 million in the round, The Information on Monday.

The investment would be SoftBank鈥檚 first in OpenAI and comes more than a year after founder told investors the fund would be switching back to 鈥渙ffense mode鈥� and was looking to be a leader in the AI revolution after it had suffered massive losses for quarters.聽

OpenAI played a role in Son鈥檚 desire to jump on the AI bandwagon. Son, who spoke very emotionally to shareholders at that meeting last year, said he has cried for years when thinking about his future and what he wanted to do with the time he has left. However, he said the recent advances in artificial intelligence rekindled his desire for investing in technology 鈥� and he particularly referenced conversing with OpenAI鈥檚 generative AI language processing platform to discuss his ideas and thoughts.

He said he was heartened by those conversations and when the platform told him those ideas were feasible.

Coming to a close

OpenAI鈥檚 massive round is . The deal is expected to be led by , which plans to commit $1 billion. Other expected investors include , , , and Abu Dhabi-based MGX.

Late last week it was was dropping out of the round.