Temasek backs OpenAI investor’s new $337m tech fund: Source

SINGAPORE – Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC), which invests in artificial intelligence (AI) companies including OpenAI, is raising a US$250 million (S$337 million) fund and has attracted government-owned entities of France and Singapore as backers.

AIC has garnered US$160 million for the fund, its second, and is on track for a final close by September, AIC partners Arnaud Barthelemy and Terry Chou said.

France’s Bpifrance, Taiwan’s CDIB Capital Group and a Singapore state-run fund are participating, they said.

The new AIC fund is already operational and its early investments include ChatGPT creator OpenAI and computing architecture start-up FlexAI. The Luxembourg-based fund is betting that companies and consumers worldwide will continue to adopt AI at an accelerating clip, fuelled by the popularity of services such as ChatGPT.

Singapore’s investment company, Temasek, is among investors in the new fund, a person familiar with the deal said.

AIC’s partners declined to confirm that name, and a Temasek representative declined to comment. AIC is in discussions with a further two sovereign investors and a global backer to close the fund, the partners said.

AIC’s previous investments include Chinese AI developer SenseTime Group, a bet it has mostly exited. Its first fund also included AI start-ups that ended up being acquired by Apple, IBM and BioNTech, said Ms Chou, who is based at AIC’s Asia headquarters in Singapore.

Venture capital firms are raising billions of dollars worldwide to back technologies such as generative AI, which underpins chatbots like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot. Such investors expect AI-powered tools to overhaul traditional ways of doing business and help solve technology challenges.

Still, the rising interest in AI sometimes leads to inflated valuations of start-ups with unclear monetisation paths, said Mr Barthelemy, who is also AIC’s chief operating officer.

“Our investors are convinced that AI will profoundly impact their respective businesses across all sectors and that this is just the beginning,” he said. “Our investors trust our expertise to help them navigate the AI hype.”

The fund will consider companies across the AI value chain, including hardware start-ups, Ms Chou said. It will focus on firms that deploy AI for applications, cyber security and gaming, she added. The fund will invest globally, excluding China. BLOOMBERG