- In an exclusive interview with Insider, Kevin O'Leary shared that he's in talks to invest in OpenAI.
- O'Leary said he is looking to cement a deal to back the ChatGPT creator in the next 90 days
- "I like to invest in the first-mover because they have a marketing advantage."
Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary is in talks to invest in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, the investor and market personality told Insider in an interview.
He said that he was unable to share any details of the investment, such as the dollar amount, but noted that a deal was likely to close in the next 90 days.
"I'm looking at the ChatGPT deal right now from an equity perspective, deciding what allocation I want to put into it," O'Leary said. "I'm very fortunate to be offered a piece of it."
OpenAI last month secured a $10 billion investment from Microsoft, a move O'Leary cheered as a shareholder in the tech giant.
"I like to invest in the first-mover because they have a marketing advantage," O'Leary said in a Tuesday call.
The natural language bot has gone viral since launching in November, as users turn to it for a range of tasks like writing articles, emails, and even dating-app messages.
The craze has sparked a push from investors for anything even vaguely related to artificial intelligence, with shares of companies soaring on small updates related to the space.
O'Leary said that the valuation given to OpenAI right now is "very, very extreme" in his opinion, given that the technology is so new.
Yet the veteran investor added that the same criticisms have been leveled at many new technologies in their earliest days, including Amazon in the 2000s, which he was also an early backer of. Overall, O'Leary says his investments prioritize diversification more than other factors.
"Whatever portfolio that position goes into, if we take a position, it won't be more than 5% of it," he said. "Either it'll have a good outcome or it won't, but I won't take down the ship or sell the farm for it. I know there's going to be a lot of competition and a lot of disruption, but I certainly like always to have a piece of the first mover."
Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.