OpenAI warns against SPVs and other ‘unauthorized’ investments
In A new blog postWarns OpenAi against “unauthorized possibilities to get exposure to OpenAI through different means”, including special vehicles, known as SPVs.
“We recommend that you are careful if you are contacted by a company that claims to have access to OpenAi, including the sale of an SPV interest with exposure to OpenAi Equity,” the company writes. The blog post acknowledges that “not every offer of OpenAI Equity […] Is problematic ”but says that companies ‘try to bypass our transfer restrictions’.
“If so, the sale is not recognized and you have no economic value for you,” says OpenAi.
Investors have increasingly used SPVs (who bundle money for one-off investments) as a way to buy in hot AI startups, so that other VCs are asked to criticize them as a vehicle for ‘tourist chumps’.
Business Insider reports that OpenAI is not the only large AI company that is looking for SPVs on SPVs, with Anthropic reportedly tells Menlo Ventures It must use its own capital, not SPV, to invest in a coming round.
