3 october 2024 : As global investors like Thrive Capital and Tiger Global invest $6.6 billion in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT is seeking more than just financial backing—they are asking investors to avoid funding five companies that they view as competitors, according to sources speaking to Reuters.
The companies on this list include those developing large language models, such as Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s new venture, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), is also included. These companies are in a competitive race with OpenAI to create large language models, which necessitates substantial financial resources.
Additionally, two AI application firms, AI search startup Perplexity and enterprise search company Glean, were mentioned in OpenAI’s discussions with investors. This suggests that OpenAI intends to expand its offerings to enterprises and end users, aiming for significant revenue growth—from $3.7 billion this year to $11.6 billion by 2025.
OpenAI, Perplexity, and SSI declined to comment, while Anthropic and Glean did not respond immediately. XAI could not be reached for a statement.
Although this request is not legally binding, it highlights how OpenAI is utilizing its influence to secure exclusive commitments from its investors in a competitive landscape where access to capital is vital.
While such expectations are not unusual in the venture capital sector, it is uncommon for a company to provide a specific list like OpenAI has. Typically, venture investors avoid backing direct competitors of their portfolio companies to mitigate reputational risks.
However, this distinction has become less clear for late-stage investors like SoftBank and Fidelity, which have invested in both xAI and OpenAI.
OpenAI’s request does not extend to its existing investors or their prior investments, but it could impact the future fundraising efforts of OpenAI’s investors and the five identified competitors.
The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal were the first to report on some of the companies included on the list.