Private Markets: Nvidia, Microsoft consider new investment in OpenAI

Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft are reportedly in talks to invest up to $60B in OpenAI. According to The Wall Street Journal, SoftBank is also in discussions to invest up to an additional $30B in OpenAI.

This week’s private company news: 

• Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) are in talks to invest in OpenAI, The Information’s Sri Muppidi reports. Nvidia, an existing investor whose chips power OpenAI’s AI models, is in talks to invest up to $30B, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, while Microsoft is in talks to invest less than $10B. Amazon, which would be a new investor, is in discussions to invest significantly more than $10B and potentially even more than $20B, according to the report.
• SoftBank (SFTBY) is in talks to invest up to an additional $30B in OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal’s Kate Clark reports, people familiar with the matter say. OpenAI is seeking to raise up to $100B in new capital, which could value the company at as much as $830B. SoftBank already has an 11% stake in OpenAI.

Some of the biggest capital raises by private companies this week include: 

• Waabi – The physical AI announced it has closed its oversubscribed $750M USD Series C round co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, and secured an additional milestone-based future investment from Uber to support a new partnership to deploy robotaxis powered by the Waabi Driver exclusively on the Uber (UBER) platform. Publicly traded companies in the space include Aurora Innovation (AUR).
• Genspark – The company has closed a $300M Series B funding round. Publicly traded companies in the space include Palantir (PLTR), C3 AI (AI), and Nvidia.
• Ricursive Intelligence – The frontier AI lab announced a $300M Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from DST Global, NVentures, Felicis Ventures, 49 Palms Ventures, Radical AI, and Sequoia Capital. Publicly traded companies in the space include GitLab (GTLB), Atlassian (TEAM), and JFrog (FROG).
• Cellares – The first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization announced a $257M Series D financing that was co-led by investment funds managed by BlackRock and Eclipse. Publicly traded companies in the space include Thermo Fisher (TMO), Danaher (DHR), and Repligen (RGEN).
• Upwind – The runtime-first cloud security leader said it secured $250M in Series B funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and Picture Capital. Existing investors include Greylock, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund, Craft Ventures, TCV, Alta Park, Cerca Partners, Swish Ventures and Penny Jar Capital. Publicly traded companies in the space include Palo Alto Networks (PANW), CrowdStrike (CRWD), and Zscaler (ZS).

Unicorns to watch this week:

• Mesh – The crypto payments infrastructure company recently hit $1B valuation after a $75M Series C. Publicly traded companies in the space include Coinbase (COIN), PayPal (PYPL), and Block (XYZ).
• Unconventional AI – Positioned as a challenger to Nvidia-dominated compute with a radically energy-efficient architecture, the company raised a $475M seed round at a $4.5B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Nvidia, AMD (AMD), and Intel (INTC).
• Chai Discovery – The AI for molecular programming company closed a $130M Series B, hitting a $1.3B valuation. Publicly traded companies in the space include Schrodinger (SDGR) and Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX).
• Radiant – The nuclear microreactors company is valued at $1.8B following a $300M Series D funding round. Publicly traded companies in the space include NuScale Power (SMR) and BWX Technologies (BWXT).
• Erebor – The crypto-focused digital bank is one of the fastest-to-unicorn companies, valued at an estimated $4.35B valuation. Publicly traded companies in the space include Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and Bakkt (BKKT).

IPOs to watch: 

• SpaceX – Elon Musk is targeting mid-June for the timing of SpaceX’s initial public offering, IPO, Ivan Levingston, Stephen Morris, and Mercedes Ruehl of The Financial Times report, citing five people familiar with the matter. The company is looking to raise $50B at a valuation of $1.5T, the sources added.
• Jersey Mike’s – The company has tapped Morgan Stanley (MS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) for public listing, Bloomberg’s Bailey Lipschultz and Preeti Singh report, citing people familiar with the matter. The Blackstone-backed (BX) sandwich chain is aiming to complete a first-time share sale as soon as Q3 of 2026, the authors say.
• Copper – The crypto custody company is in early talks about a public listing, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, CoinDesk’s Will Canny writes. Goldman Sachs (GS), Citi (C) and Deutsche Bank (DB) are among the investment banks potentially involved, according to one source. The decision on whether to pursue a listing will hinge on the company’s near-term revenue performance, a second person said.
• Grayscale Investments (GRAY) – The company filed a prospectus for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GRAY.” Grayscale says it is the largest digital asset-focused investment platform in the world, with $35B in assets under management as of September 30. 
  Klook Technology (KLK) – The company, which identifies itself as “the largest pan-regional experiences platform in Asia-Pacific” by gross transaction volume in 2024, announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of American Depositary Shares representing its ordinary shares. 

“Private Markets” is The Fly’s recurring series of stories on the latest moves in the private sector, largest unicorn companies and initial public offerings to watch. Fly subscribers, add $PRIVATE to your portfolio for alerts on breaking news in the startup and venture capital space.