Singapore’s Temasek is in investment talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

According to the Financial Times on March 5th, Singaporean state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings is in talks with Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT development company OpenAI, marking the first time a group with national backing has invested in OpenAI. Sources say that Temasek's senior executives have met with Altman several times in recent months to discuss preliminary but ongoing discussions, and no agreement has been reached on any investment scale. The talks come as Altman seeks funding to launch a semiconductor business aimed at reducing dependence on cutting-edge chips manufactured by Nvidia. Despite OpenAI's significant revenue growth since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Altman has stated that OpenAI is still operating at a loss due to the enormous cost of building and training its models. Temasek's investment interest reflects its increasingly global footprint over the past decade, with the investment company currently holding a portfolio worth $287 billion globally, including some top-tier tech startups. OpenAI is currently supported by $1.3 billion from Microsoft (its largest investor), as well as several venture capital groups such as Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, and Andreessen Horowitz.