WSJ reported last month that Apple would participate in an upcoming OpenAI fundraising round, possibly to deepen its ties with the company. OpenAI is the iPhone maker’s key Apple Intelligence partner. Apple Intelligence is the banner under which its AI tools are marketed.
The most important of these capabilities, AI-fueled writing tools and a more powerful Siri, are reliant on ChatGPT, which is integrated into these features.
It’s not known why Apple has bowed out of the funding, which could raise as much as $6.5 billion for OpenAI as it navigates a new identity as a for-profit company, after previously operating as a non-profit entity.
The investment would have been a rare move for Apple, which doesn’t usually sink money in startups, and instead concentrates its efforts on manufacturing partners.
The decision to pull out of the funding round, which is expected to close next week, was apparently a last-minute decision.
Apple is trying to catch up with competitors in the AI space and considers AI the next big step for itself. Marketing for the newly released iPhone 16 revolved heavily around Apple Intelligence, despite the company’s AI features not being available until next month.
The company’s own competencies are said to be lagging, which is why it forged a partnership with OpenAI and held talks with Google to integrate AI into iOS.
OpenAI is the company’s inaugural partner and while the alleged decision to not invest in the company doesn’t point to a rift in the partnership, it does make you wonder whether it has anything to do with the underwhelming launch of the iPhone 16, which might go on to be one of Apple’s least successful iPhones in the past five years.
An investment would have ensured continued access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which remains a market leader in spite of the budding competition.
The funding round will be led by venture-capital company Thrive Capital and Microsoft and Nvidia are also expected to participate.