Apple has big plans for its own artificial intelligence features Apple Intelligence this year, but may be hedging its bets with an investment in OpenAI, according to a The Wall Street Journal report.
Considering that OpenAI's next fundraising round claims the company is worth more than $100 billion, it's likely that deep-pocketed companies like Apple will still be needed, but it could mean that Apple's AI future is a little more flexible than one might have assumed.
Apple’s interest in OpenAI fits with its push into AI this year, particularly with the planned launch of Apple Intelligence. The company is expected to share a lot more details about these AI futures at its Glowtime event on September 9. We already know that Apple plans to include both its own AI models and those of third parties. You might end up having a lot more choice over the types of AI features you can access on your Apple devices, which would make for a different experience compared to how Apple’s own apps and services are typically pre-determined (which caused quite a bit of chaos when Apple Maps ended its deal with Google Maps).
In fact, this is not the first sign of agreement between Apple and OpenAI. Apple is working to integrate ChatGPT features into Mac and iOS systems, for example. But, as WSJ newspaper According to the report, Apple does not typically invest in companies like OpenAI, but rather typically buys startups and invests in manufacturing companies. Since the investment round is expected to raise several billion dollars, it is obvious that OpenAI is happy for Apple to write a check.
Of course, Apple isn’t the only investor in the round. Thrive Capital is leading it, but Microsoft, normally one of Apple’s biggest rivals, is also participating. This is notable, considering that Microsoft was the first major investor in OpenAI and has already invested $13 billion, giving it a 49% stake in OpenAI’s profits.
Apple's OpenAI
While Apple is generally known for taking its own approach to products and platforms, OpenAI isn’t its only AI collaborator. There have been rumors of plans for Apple and Meta to team up to develop AI features for future iPhones, and the company has publicly mentioned the possibility of working with Google to access its Gemini AI models. The same goes for Apple’s talks with Anthropic, the creator of Claude AI, and Perplexity AI.
However, according to the report, Apple is not abandoning its standard approach to everything. It continues to make privacy a cornerstone of its brand. Apple is working on stronger privacy protections for users interacting with AI tools than the standard ones. Apparently, Apple's goal is to make sure that complex AI tasks are processed through ChatGPT and maintain a higher level of data security and user confidentiality.
For Apple users, the inclusion of ChatGPT and other AI models in the Apple ecosystem could enable better experiences. At the same time, Apple’s moves show that competition in AI, particularly between Apple and Microsoft, has a unique shape compared to a simple operating system war. Both companies are vying to dominate the AI landscape. The question is whether Apple’s privacy and other strengths will outweigh the way Microsoft has made AI part of its entire product line and its leadership in both implementing and investing in OpenAI.
