Tiger Global plans to join OpenAI's multi-billion dollar funding round

(Reuters) -Venture capital firm Tiger Global Management plans to participate in the multi-billion-dollar funding round for OpenAI, which could value the ChatGPT developer at $150 billion, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

OpenAI's meteoric popularity has made the startup one of the biggest players in the artificial intelligence industry and ignited widespread interest in generative AI, with businesses racing to capitalize on the technology.

Josh Kushner's venture capital firm Thrive Capital plans to commit $1 billion, according to the source. The Information, which reported on Tiger's talks earlier, also said Thrive will lead the funding round.

The deal, if it comes together, would mark Tiger as a returning investor in OpenAI, which previously invested $50 million in the company at a $14.5 billion valuation in 2019.

Tiger would join a roster of other high-profile investors, including Microsoft, as well as Nvidia, Apple and Abu Dhabi AI investment firm G42, which have reportedly been in talks to participate in the funding round.

The Sam Altman-led AI startup is raising $6.5 billion from investors, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, seeking another $5 billion in debt from banks through a revolving credit facility.

OpenAI and Tiger Global Management did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The company recently announced the launch of its "Strawberry" series of AI models, designed to spend more time processing answers to queries in order to solve complex problems.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Tasim Zahid)