Media report: OpenAI wins new top-class investors

Well-known VCs are apparently investing another $300 million. Also: ChatGPT can be used again in Italy and the renowned VC Lakestar is said to have performance problems.

Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.

The top topics:

OpenAI, the startup behind the AI ​​chatbot ChatGPT, has gained new supporters, as reported by the US medium “Techcrunch”. VC firms like Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive and K2 Global buy in according to documents available to the online medium. A source also reported that the Founders Fund invest. Overall, the VCs have committed just over $300 million at a valuation of $27 billion to $29 billion.

This sum is independent of a large investment of Microsoft, which was announced earlier this year. The latter was closed in January and is estimated at around ten billion dollars. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

On Founder Scene: Our columnist Don Dahlmann doesn’t really know what to do with the sticky climate activists. They would like to draw attention to the traffic madness, he writes in his “Torque” column, but they cannot offer any sensible alternatives either. As a result, the protests remained “ineffective and unrealistic,” said Dahlmann. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:

OpenAI attracted attention over the weekend with further positive news: The Californians are allowed to use their voice robot ChatGPT again after a forced break in Italy. The US company presented the data protection authority with measures to ensure data protection, as it was said on Friday. These would improve transparency and rights for European users. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal und Handelsblatt]

Lake star According to a report by the “Handelsblatt”, it should have performance problems. The first fund from the venture capitalist of startup investor Klaus Hommels, which was launched in 2013, is currently said to be performing significantly weaker than top funds of its year. According to investor documents, “Lakestar I” has a net return of almost ten percent. The top funds, on the other hand, would deliver about 20 percent, as the “Handelsblatt” said. Lakestar once made one of its most famous deals with the fund: the company invested in the music streaming service in the early stages Spotify. The fund then multiplied the sum ninefold. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]

SpaceX wants to quickly repair damage to the launch pad after the explosion of the “Starship” rocket. The facility should be ready for the launch of the next rocket by early summer. That’s what NASA head Bill Nelson said at a hearing before the House Science Committee in the US late last week. Nelson reported that the April 20 explosion blasted a hole in the launch pad. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]

Apple has dropped a lawsuit against a former company chip executive. The iPhone maker had sued Gerard Williams for allegedly poaching employees for his own startup. Williams left his job as Apple’s lead chip architect in 2019 to become a co-founder of Bride. He had launched a counterclaim to Apple’s complaint, claiming that Apple had tried to torpedo his company’s recruitment. It is not known why Apple is now dropping its lawsuit. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Ex-TwitterCEO Jack Dorsey has harshly criticized Elon Musk’s leadership of the short messaging service in a series of social media posts. He wrote that “everything went wrong” and Musk “should have walked away from the acquisition.” users of Bluesky, a new social media platform being touted as a potential alternative to Twitter, stimulated discussion. They asked Dorsey if he thought Musk was the right boss for Twitter, to which Dorsey replied, “No.” [Mehr bei Techcrunch und CNBC]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: The CDU has on their Future Congress Startups in focus. Scene heads like Christian Vollmann were also invited. But not every party member liked the event. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

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Have a good start into the week!

Your Gründerszene editors