OpenAI starts its own venture capital: $400 million bet on next generation AI company Beating AI News: OpenAI launches its second Startup Fund with a scale of $400 million, all funded by OpenAI itself. The first fund raised $175 million in 2021, with funding from external investors such as Microsoft, and OpenAI did not contribute its own funds. At that time, OpenAI could receive a portion of the investment profits, but most of the economic benefits went to the LP (fund investors) who contributed. Now OpenAI has launched its second fund, and the money earned from investments is no longer mainly flowing to external LPs. The initial fund has invested in 24 companies, including Cursor and legal AI company Harvey, and all funds have been invested so far. Cursor was just acquired by SpaceX this month, with a transaction corresponding to an implied equity value of $60 billion. The new fund still mainly invests in early-stage AI companies, with plans to invest in 8 to 10 companies per year, with the goal of directly leading the investment. A single investment starts from a few million dollars, usually up to 50 million dollars, and suitable projects can be invested up to 100 million dollars. In the past, although OpenAI Startup Fund was named OpenAI, it mainly used money from external investors. Now that the first fund has achieved results, OpenAI decided to continue investing $400 million on its own, taking on the risks and leaving more investment returns for itself. [Original link]