OpenAI recently announced that the company is considering a shift to a for-profit benefit corporation. Credit: Ascannio / Shutterstock.

Tech giant Apple has reportedly stepped back from participating in OpenAI’s anticipated $6.5bn funding round, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The decision comes amid a period of executive turnover at the artificial intelligence startup, which has seen several key figures depart.

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Concurrently, other tech companies such as Microsoft and NVIDIA are reportedly in discussions to contribute to the funding effort.

Microsoft previously invested close to $13bn in OpenAI and is speculated to commit an additional $1bn.

The publication noted that OpenAI, the entity behind the widely discussed ChatGPT, could reach a valuation exceeding $100bn due to the intense interest in AI across various industries.

The strategic imperative for companies to invest heavily in AI to maintain market competitiveness has propelled this valuation surge.

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Founded as a non-profit, OpenAI established a for-profit arm in 2019, though the non-profit board maintained significant influence over decisions.

Recently, OpenAI announced that the company is considering a shift to a for-profit benefit corporation, which could diminish the non-profit’s control and appeal to a broader investor base.

The non-profit arm is expected to retain a minority stake in the for-profit entity.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is anticipated to receive equity in the for-profit branch, potentially valued at $150bn post-restructuring, as the company seeks to remove the cap on investor returns.

The proposed restructuring is still being finalised with legal and shareholder consultations, and the timeline for completion is currently uncertain

Amidst these strategic changes, the recent C-suite departures is said to have cast uncertainty on OpenAI’s future direction.

Recently, OpenAI introduced its latest series of AI models with advanced reasoning capabilities to solve complex problems.

These models are engineered to deliberate more extensively on queries, enabling them to tackle more challenging problems across various domains.