Apple poised to get OpenAI board observer role as part of AI pact

[htrp]

Pretty interesting how it seems like the leverage is all in Apple's hands here. They didn't invest and AFAIK they aren't even paying for the GPT4 api calls.

Is the Apple user base THAT valuable?

[ChrisMarshallNY]

> Is the Apple user base THAT valuable?

Yes.

People love to hate on Apple, but it's a primo platform, because it's a billion people that are willing to spend extra money for stuff that many techs think is "silly."

[dmitrygr]

> Is the Apple user base THAT valuable?

Ask google, they pay $20B/yr

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-01/google-s-...

[talldayo]

> Is the Apple user base THAT valuable?

Depends on how you monetize the data.

[strikelaserclaw]

YES! Apple user base is very very valuable - in general the apple user base has money and is willing to spend it on shiny stuff

[cj]

This is an incredibly good decision on Apple's part.

OpenAI is a relatively new company with a not so great history when it comes to corporate governance / stability / consistency. If I were Apple and wanted to make sure I'm partnering with a startup that won't implode in 12 months, I'd demand a board seat too (even if it gets negotiated down to an observer seat).

[astromaniak]

it's very limiting probably too. likely they cannot have side contacts with competitors while having insider info in oai. also they likely cannot develop competing products themself. and obviously non disclosure. all this makes it a strong connection from both sides.

[nightshadetrie]

https://archive.is/20240702204831/https://www.bloomberg.com/...

[mtillman]

Observer: Insider trading without the fiduciary risk.

[asukumar]

Taking a board observer seat would expose you to more insider scrutiny, not less.

[threeseed]

Phil Schiller could make far more money by selling his options/shares in Apple at more opportunistic times.

Or he could rob a bank. Probably easier and about as blatant as trading OpenAI shares whilst on the board.

[ChrisArchitect]

https://archive.ph/3hJWk

[asimpleusecase]

Open AI gets great brand building - Apple users spend a lot of money and are all potential open AI customers personally and professionally. If they get used to this “just working” all the time they may have confidence to use open Ai in their company. Also if Open AI can stay ahead of Apple in AI and keep delivering market winning innovation that causes Apple users to return to hardware upgrade cycles of every year or two that will generate many billions for Apple and make open Ai worth paying for.a bit like the drug dealer who gives you the first hit for free.

[blackeyeblitzar]

Weird that Apple gets a board observer seat for having a regular business agreement, rather than an investment. It highlights the power of distribution and the insane power of owning these platforms. This is why regulation is needed around the big platform owners in tech.

[rpozarickij]

Given the size of Apple and the amount of business they are likely to generate for OpenAI, they might be one of the (if not _the_) most non-regular customers of OpenAI.

[surfingdino]

I'm looking for an alternative spelling of "pact"... how about "oligopoly" or "cartel"?

[candiddevmike]

Eventually OpenAI will have to commit to one, corporate polyamory never works out

[Apocryphon]

otoh, isn't this just an industry consortium

[0xcde4c3db]

"Contract. I am thou, thou art I."

(at the risk of explaining the joke: it's darkly hilarious that the AI bubble has multiple established corporations, by all outward appearances, diving headlong into their chuuni arc)

[awahab92]

"conglomerate" would be a good fit.

[Animats]

Note who Apple sent - a marketing guy.

[mushufasa]

Battle lines:

OpenAI: Microsoft + Apple

Anthropic: Amazon

Google vs all

Facebook the anarchist

Nvidia arms dealer

[vineyardmike]

Google and Apple have hinted at Gemini being an alternative to ChatGPT in Siri integration.

Amazon has their own (terrible) models, and they (along with Microsoft) sell a ton of options on their platforms.

Anthropic has a ton of investors including Google.

There are no clear lines here. It’ll be interesting to see how long all these companies will keep funding massive models vs rely on their partners.

[maxFlow]

Anthropic Investors:

Amazon.com – $4B

Google – $2B

Menlo Ventures – $750M

Wisdom Ventures

Ripple Impact Investments

Factorial Funds

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic#Investors

[candiddevmike]

Anthropic is being courted by Amazon and Google AFAIK

[Apocryphon]

Musk with xAI but mostly just trolling OpenAI