TAIPEI: Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang says the company will be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made”.
“We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei on Saturday.
“I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.”
Huang didn’t say exactly how much the company might contribute but described the investment as “huge”.
“Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise – it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, adding that Altman is in the process of closing the round.
“But we will definitely participate in the next round of financing because it’s such a good investment.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday that a plan that Nvidia had announced in September to invest as much as US$100bil in OpenAI overall had stalled after some inside the chip giant expressed doubts about the deal.
Citing sources, The Journal reported that Huang had privately emphasised that the US$100bil agreement was nonbinding, had privately criticised what he has described as a lack of discipline in OpenAI’s business approach and expressed concern about competition.
When asked by a reporter in Taipei about the report that seemed to suggest he wasn’t very happy with OpenAI, Jensen said, “That’s nonsense.”
Huang said Nvidia’s contribution to OpenAI’s latest funding round wouldn’t approach US$100bil.
Nvidia’s massive investment commitment to OpenAI, a key buyer of its advanced AI chips, has stoked concerns about the circular nature of artificial intelligence (AI) deals over the past year.
Investors are increasingly questioning how these partnerships – in which technology companies are investing in AI businesses that purchase their products – may be artificially propping up demand.
In a separate such deal, Nvidia recently announced plans to invest an additional US$2bil in CoreWeave Inc, a cloud computing provider that’s also a key customer. — Bloomberg
