Apple may invest in OpenAI ahead of ChatGPT's debut on iPhone

Apple may be planning to invest in OpenAI, a move that will help bolster the company’s efforts on the development of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI). A new report has said the iPhone maker is currently “in talks to invest in OpenAI” to strengthen its partnership with the AI company following the announcement at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

The Microsoft-backed OpenAI is seeking a new round of funding, expected to push the company’s value to over $100 billion as the competition in the Gen AI market intensifies. Since OpenAI is already working with Apple to integrate its ChatGPT AI chatbot into its upcoming iOS 18 for select models, an expanded collaboration facilitated through an investment would make sense.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that OpenAI’s next funding round will be led by Thrive Capital, but Apple may potentially emerge as an investor in the company. “It couldn’t be learned how much Apple or Microsoft will invest into OpenAI this round,” the report highlighted.

Existing partnership between Apple and OpenAI

At the WWDC 2024 held in June, Apple announced Apple Intelligence, its version of Gen AI-powered tools that will power the upcoming iPhone 16 series. A major part of the upcoming Apple Intelligence functionality will be an upgraded Siri, which will offer AI-powered answers. However, in case Siri does not have answers to questions, it will ask for ChatGPT’s help without requiring the user to access OpenAI’s chatbot separately.

During its announcement, Apple software engineering executive Craig Federighi said the ChatGPT integration into Siri will allow iPhone users to find answers to complex questions. However, the partnership between Apple and OpenAI for ChatGPT’s integration into iOS 18 does not have monetary bearings. Apple was also reportedly talking to Google to bring Gemini to iPhone, but the company has not announced if that plan is still on.