OpenAI – CEO Altman is offering emergency funding to startups privately, with no strings attached

OpenAI – CEO Altman is offering emergency funding to startups privately, with no strings attached

16. März 2023 0 Von Horst Buchwald

OpenAI – CEO Altman is offering emergency funding to startups privately, with no strings attached

San Francisco, 3/16/2023

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is offering his personal equity to startups hit by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday. Altman has provided six-figure emergency relief funds to start-up Rad AI, which needed funds to pay its employees.

Altman offered the funds to Doctor Gurson, Rad AI’s CEO, within two hours of the request, noting that Gurson would only have to repay if he could.

Altman also tweeted to his followers on Friday, „Today is a good day to offer emergency cash to your startups that need it for payroll or whatever. No documents, no strings attached, just send money.”

BACKGROUND: Regulators closed and placed Silicon Valley Bank in receivership on Friday. In doing so, they initiated the largest US bank failure since 2008 and the second largest in US history. .

The takeover comes after the bank’s customers tried to withdraw $42 billion in a single day the day before.

Almost half of US venture capital-backed startups have taken out the tech-focused lender. Many startups had their capital held in SVB, and some struggled to raise emergency funds from VCs to meet payroll and operational liquidity needs.