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

The investment would be SoftBank’s first in OpenAI and comes more than a year after SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son told investors the fund would be switching back to “offense mode” and was looking to be a leader in the AI revolution after it had suffered massive losses for quarters. 

OpenAI played a role in Son’s 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 — and he particularly referenced conversing with OpenAI’s generative AI language processing platform ChatGPT 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’s massive round is expected to close this week. The deal is expected to be led by Thrive Capital, which reportedly plans to commit $1 billion. Other expected investors include Tiger Global Management, Khosla Ventures, Microsoft, Nvidia and Abu Dhabi-based MGX.

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

Related reading

• Eye On AI: Thrive Capital’s Busy Year
• SoftBank Shifting Back To ‘Offense’ When It Comes to Investing — Thanks To AI

Illustration: Dom Guzman