Apple has reportedly stepped back from talks to invest in a massive OpenAI funding round. That round is expected to raise up to $6.5 billion, but Apple recently backed away from discussions to take part, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday (Sept. 27), citing sources close to the matter. Those sources say Microsoft and Nvidia are also in discussions to take part in the round, with the former company expected to invest $1 billion in the artificial intelligence (AI) startup, on top of the $13 billion it has already invested. The report noted that Apple’s participation would have marked a rare investment by the company in another major tech firm. As PYMNTS wrote last week, OpenAI’s fundraising plan — which would reportedly value the company at $150 billion — could usher in a new era for AI commercialization, potentially reshaping entire industries and leading to a pitched battle for market dominance. The updated valuation, which doesn’t include the money being raised, marks a jump from the $86 billion figure established during OpenAI’s tender offer earlier in the year. If successful, this financing round would seal OpenAI’s status as one of the world’s most valuable startups and bring about a seismic shift in the AI sector. “We’re seeing a consolidation of capital around clear winners in the general LLM [large language model] space — OpenAI, Perplexity, Mistral, LLaMA,” Hannah Chelkowski, co-founder and general partner at Blank Ventures, told PYMNTS. “This funding round further cements OpenAI’s position as a leader in this space.”

Full story : Apple no longer in talks to join OpenAI’s $6.5 billion funding round.