The Post has learned that Sam Altman is personally pushing OpenAI investors to support a new player challenging chip-making giant Nvidia — even though Nvidia has reportedly closed its doors with Elon Musk. Trade relations have been enhanced.
The OpenAI CEO is promoting an upcoming $150 million second round of financing, valuing Ren AI – a budding maker of high-performance semiconductors – at around $600 million, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
Altman was a major investor Rain AI’s 2022 $25M seed roundSources said.
The latest round is expected to begin next month, the source said.
“He has introduced the company to all of his investors for this Series B round,” the source said of Altman.
Ren AI says its chips are far more energy efficient and powerful than Nvidia’s, the sources said.
In June, the company hired former Apple chip executive Jean-Didier Allegrucci as head of hardware engineering.
OpenAI declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Ren AI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Altman is advancing its rival’s Time Rain AI Elon Musk is talking to Nvidia about its investment in xAIThe Post exclusively reported earlier this month.
Nvidia has 85% market share in the artificial intelligence chip field and has become World’s most valuable company with $3.5 trillion market cap,
It is expected that Open AI will continue to sell its chips even with Musk investing in it.
Still, insiders speculated that Altman had become concerned that Nvidia’s relationship with Musk was becoming too cozy.
Musk is expected to spend billions to buy 100,000 Nvidia chips soon, CNBC reported,
“Ren AI is one of the legitimate players when it comes to the future of AI and chips,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told The Post.
“There’s a lot of buzz about what Rain AI is doing and it’s early days in the AI revolution,” Ives said. “There will be many players, not just ‘Godfather of AI’ Jensen Huang and Nvidia.”
“When you have someone like Altman supporting [them] It puts them right in the middle of Times Square with the spotlight,” he said.
“Any company [Altman] The back is a huge vote of confidence and gives them a huge runway where they can go.
