Sam Altman is personally pitching OpenAI investors to back a new challenger to chipmaking giant Nvidia — even as Nvidia reportedly increases its business ties to Elon Musk, The Post has learned.
OpenAI’s CEO is touting an upcoming $150 million second funding round that values Rain AI — a new high-performance semiconductor maker — at roughly $600 million, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
Altman was a major investor in Rain AI’s $25 million 2022 seed round, the sources said.
The latest round is expected to start next month, the source said.
“He has pitched the company to all of his investors for this Series B round,” the source told Altman.
Rain 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 Rain AI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Altman is pushing Rain AI at a time when rival Elon Musk is talking to Nvidia about investing in its xAI, The Post exclusively reported earlier this month.
Nvidia has a staggering 85% market share in the artificial intelligence chip space and has become the world’s most valuable company with a market cap of $3.5 trillion.
It is expected to continue selling its chips to Open AI even if it invests with Musk.
However, insiders speculated that Altman has grown concerned that Nvidia’s relationship with Musk is getting too cozy.
Musk expects to soon spend billions to buy 100,000 Nvidia chips, CNBC reported.
“Rain AI is one of the legitimate players at the table when it comes to the future of AI and chips,” Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives told The Post.
“There’s a lot of hype around everything Rain AI is doing, and it’s the early days of the AI revolution,” Ives added. “There will be many players, not just the ‘Godfather of AI’ Jensen Huang and Nvidia.”
“When you have someone like Altman supporting you [them] that puts them right in the middle of Times Square with a spotlight on them,” he said.
“Every company [Altman] The back is a huge vote of confidence and gives them a massive runway to go to.”
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