US-headquartered artificial intelligence researcher and technology developer OpenAI has formed a $100m corporate venture capital vehicle to make early-stage strategic investments.
OpenAI Startup Fund will provide funding for startups developing technology which will utilise AI in socially responsible areas such as healthcare, education or climate change in addition to products that harness AI to improve productivity.
The fund will be managed by OpenAI but it has recruited several eternal backers as limited partners. They include software producer Microsoft, which agreed in mid-2019 to invest $1bn in the company.
Portfolio companies will also be able to access future OpenAI systems before they become commercially available, and will also receive support from the company’s staff in addition to credit for Microsoft’s cloud services platform, Azure.
Sam Altman, founder and chief executive of OpenAI, revealed in a video statement cited by TechCrunch that the fund will likely invest in up to 10 companies.
Microsoft’s chief technology officer, Kevin Scott, added: “We know it is you, the developers, who can use powerful tools like (OpenAI language prediction tool) GPT-3 to create ambitious applications that will leave a positive mark on the world. Microsoft is thrilled to be able to support this fund.”
