Wen | Zhou Yu
Editor | Deng Yongyi Shang En
Entering OpenAI in late September is really lively. Just released DALL·E 3 and multi-modal ChatGPT, OpenAI has been reported to enter AI hardware devices.
According to The Information, two people familiar with the matter revealed that,Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has been in contact with Jony Ive, a famous iPhone designer, to discuss the development of a new AI hardware device..
One of them also said that,Sun Zhengyi, CEO of Softbank, has already talked with the two people about this idea.But it is not clear whether he will participate in it later.
In 2019, Jony Ive, then Apple’s chief design officer, suddenly announced his resignation and set up his own design brand LoveFrom. During his 28 years at Apple, Ive was the head of hardware product design for many classic series products such as iPod, iPhone, iPad and iMac.
Jony lve, source: CNBC
After starting its own business, Ive’s studio designed products including vinyl record player for the 50th anniversary of British audio brand LINN, and "Astra Carta" logo designed for King Charles III of England.
At present, OpenAI, Softbank and Ive have not disclosed relevant information. It is not clear what the equipment will be, and it is not clear whether the equipment will be made by OpenAI or other companies.
But there is no doubt that if this cooperation is successful, it will be a high-profile alliance between the world’s most famous designers and the CEO of the most concerned technology company, as well as a new attempt.
While discussing the development of AI hardware, OpenAI once again shocked many people with its three-fold valuation in seven months.
According to the Wall Street Journal reported on September 26, OpenAI is discussing the sale of stocks with investors, and itsThe valuation has also reached between $80 billion and $90 billion. If this valuation is true, then OpenAI will become the third most valuable startup in the world after SpaceX and ByteDance.
Back to seven months ago, when accepting Microsoft’s 10 billion investment, OpenAI’s valuation was only $29 billion. With this investment, Microsoft currently owns 49% of OpenAI.
In addition, OpenAI also revealed to investors that the company’s revenue will reach 1 billion US dollars in 2023 and several billion US dollars in 2024.
Source: IC photo
However, the current layout of OpenAI is mainly in the aspect of large model, and there is no work related to hardware development. However, Altman is obviously jealous of AI hardware and does not intend to sit still.
Altman has long invested in Humane, a consumer-grade AI hardware startup. In 2020, Altman co-led the company’s $30 million Series A financing, and then participated in the Series B and C financing with a total of $200 million in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
It can be said that at present,Altman is one of Humane’s biggest investors.. The company also said: "It plans to integrate its technology into Humane devices through cooperation with OpenAI."
Humane also has a deep apple background. Imran Chaudhri, two co-founders of Humane, and Bethany Bongiorno, a software engineer, both worked at Apple. At present, Humane is planning to develop a screenless wearable device, which can be guided by voice prompts or gestures, while projecting information on the surface in front of it. At the end of June this year, Humane officially announced its first equipment product-Humane AI PIN.
Source: Humane
OpenAI has always been an early leader in the field of artificial intelligence, but with the influx of more and more technology companies, the competition is intensifying.
Microsoft, which once spent its honeymoon together, seems to have a bad feeling with OpenAI. In mid-July, when Microsoft, as a partner, appeared at the launch site of Llama2, a big Meta model, many people were shocked. Microsoft also has excellent AI application scenarios such as Office family barrels.
In addition to the threat of open source model Llama2 to OpenAI, Meta has long been laid out on hardware devices. Since September 2020, Meta has successively released versions 1, 2 and Pro of VR Head Show Quest. With the support of AI, Quest2 and Quest Pro also support infrared sensors to track users’ hands and voice input, and use voice commands to take screen shots, change room size boundaries or check battery power.
Meta Connect 2023 will be held from September 27th to 28th, US time. At that time, Meta will also release a new generation of VR head-mounted Meta Quest 3, and its AI performance is also expected.
Source: Meta
Another highlight of this report is Sun Zhengyi.
In 2017, Sun Zhengyi announced the establishment of the Vision Fund, focusing on global investment in science and technology, with the scale of the first and second phases reaching 100 billion US dollars. In the statement at that time, Sun Zhengyi said that Softbank Vision Fund "will invest in enterprises that can lay the foundation for the next generation of information revolution".
However, the performance of Vision Fund in recent years is still far from Sun Zhengyi’s expectation, which is not satisfactory. According to statistics, in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the losses of the fund were respectivelyUp to $16 billion, $32 billion. In cutting-edge technology, Softbank has hardly participated in the investment in generative AI start-ups in the past year.
Just this month, the chip company ARM was officially listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. A long-lost IPO carnival finally brought some blood to Softbank. Sun Zhengyi, 66, once again stood in the spotlight and announced that Softbank would shift from "defensive mode" to "offensive mode" to catch up with the AI craze that swept through Silicon Valley in the past year.
Source: IC photo
And OpenAI is the "piece of fat" that Sun Zhengyi has been eyeing for a long time.
On September 16, local time, according to the British media Financial Times, after the listing of ARM, Sun Zhengyi, CEO of Softbank Group, hopes to continue to invest tens of billions of dollars in the AI field, and OpenAI is one of the potential investment targets. However, at the time, both OpenAI and Softbank declined to comment.
Sun Zhengyi also claimed to be a "heavy user" of ChatGPT, chatting with him almost every day and claiming to be with Sam Altman.close relationshipAnd described Altman as "one of the key figures on the earth."
After the news of OpenAI’s entry into hardware broke out, an online netizen who claimed to work for Softbank also ran out and shouted: Sun Zhengyi showed off how iron his relationship with Altman was every day, and he called every week.
Source: Weibo
The report also said that competitors investing in OpenAI are also under consideration by Sun Zhengyi. In order to deepen the in-depth layout of the AI field, Sun Zhengyi also plans to acquire the British chip company Graphcore, but Graphcore directly denied the news.
But no matter who the specific investment target is, Softbank’s investment in the AI field has been eager to try, and Sun Zhengyi seems to be regaining his enthusiasm for investment.
In June this year, Sun Zhengyi declared in a high-profile way: "Now it is time to shift gears, and the singularity of the artificial intelligence revolution is coming soon. In the next 10 years, artificial intelligence will change the world. Softbank will become a leader in the field of artificial intelligence and has prepared sufficient ammunition. "
He also said at the time,At present, there are 5 trillion yen (about 254.7 billion yuan) in cash on the books., ready to enter the "attack mode".
关于作者