In a recent financial filing, the OpenAI Startup Fund, the company’s early-stage AI investor, revealed that it has raised more than $44 million for its fifth Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which is the largest one to date.
The Fund was established in 2021 and has a unique structure. Despite claiming that OpenAI is not an investor, it uses the OpenAI name. According to its website, it has raised funds from outside LPs, including Microsoft, a significant OpenAI sponsor, and “other OpenAI partners,” after being legally controlled by OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman at first. Earlier this year, Altman relinquished legal control to Ian Hathaway, his general partner.
VCs usually employ SPVs to invest outside of their primary fund and aggregate investor funds. The fund, however, has not disclosed the precise purpose of these monies.
This SPV “will be used to support a variety of existing portfolio companies and to make new investments,” an OpenAI representative told TechCrunch.
“SPVs allow us to allocate capital to high-potential investments opportunistically.”
This year, the fund, which was established in 2021, has disclosed five different vehicles totaling $114.2 million, continuing its impressive SPV streak:
Its website is minimal, with its most current news being published a year ago, despite the bustle of activity. The website only lists a small number of its investments, such as the AI note-taking software Mem and the legal AI business Harvey.
But contrary to what its website suggests, the fund is more active. Thrive Health, an AI health venture involving Sam Altman and Ariana Huffington, and the warm outbound business Unify are noteworthy investments this year.
Due to its AI code assistant Cursor, Anysphere is presently engaged in a VC bidding war, and the fund is also a seed investor in the company.
The Fund’s initial capital of $175.25 million, which was raised back in October 2021, is the sum of all these SPVs.