First 2021 fund raised $175M from outside investors including Microsoft
An affiliate of OpenAI filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday indicating it has raised $400 million for a new venture fund, according to a Wall Street Journal report. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the fund consists entirely of capital from the company.
The new vehicle is OpenAI’s second startup fund and is more than double the size of its inaugural fund, which raised $175 million in 2021 with outside investors including Microsoft. OpenAI itself was not an investor in that first fund; the 2021 vehicle raised its capital from external backers.
A spokesperson said the new fund will continue to make investments in early-stage companies across the AI ecosystem.
OpenAI’s first fund publicly announced its initial investments in December 2022, disclosing stakes in Harvey, an AI legal-services company, and Speak, an AI-powered language-learning application.