Cathie Wood’s Ark is doubling down on OpenAI with at least $250 million in its new funding round

• OpenAI just closed a $6.6 billion funding round.
• Cathie Wood’s Ark Venture Fund invested at least $250 million in this new round.
• OpenAI is now Ark Venture Fund’s third-largest holding, accounting for about 5% of its total assets.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Venture Fund has agreed to invest at least $250 million in OpenAI’s latest funding round, three people familiar with the round said. The deal marks the fund’s second investment in the ChatGPT developer.

The money brings the round, one of the largest in startup history, to $6.6 billion. Ark joined Thrive Capital, which led the round, as well as new and returning investors, including Microsoft, SoftBank, Tiger Global, Nvidia, Khosla Ventures, Altimeter, and MGX, an Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, fund.

OpenAI is now Ark Venture Fund’s third-largest holding, accounting for about 5% of the fund’s total assets, according to its website. This marks an increase from a 4% stake in April, when Ark first invested.

Securing a spot in OpenAI’s latest round is yet another victory for the stand-alone venture fund, which disclosed it had purchased shares of xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial-intelligence startup, in May and Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s fierce rivals, last year. The fund made another splashy investment in February, adding the robotics developer Figure to its portfolio.

A spokesperson for Ark Venture Fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, a retail investor shared a screenshot of what appears to be an email she received from Ark Venture Fund informing her of its new OpenAI investment.

Musk replied to the tweet, saying, “Hmm.”