Will.i.am Was An Early Investor In OpenAI, Which Is Valued At More Than $850B And Reportedly Preparing To File IPO – AfroTech
will.i.am was an early investor in several tech companies, including OpenAI.
In 2025, Fortune estimated his net worth at $50 million, attributing it to his music career and investments in early-stage companies such as Tesla, Pinterest, and OpenAI.
“I did some pretty cool investments in the past,” will.i.am told Fortune.
He described OpenAI as one of his smartest investments to date. OpenAI launched in 2015 with support from billionaires such as Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel, as well as Amazon Web Services and other industry giants. Hoffman played a significant part in will.i.am’s investment in AI, according to Forbes. Hoffman initially wanted the musician to invest in OpenAI’s rival, Inflection AI, which he co-founded with Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.
“One day, Reid called me and said, ‘There’s this guy you should meet named Mustafa. I know you’re interested in AI, and there’s not that many people from the industry that have the vernacular and understanding of the space. It’ll be great to have you in the fold. You should invest,’” will.i.am said, according to Forbes.
After joining a private investor group, will.i.am invested in Anthropic, Runway, Hugging Face, and OpenAI. Now, OpenAI — which is valued at more than $850 billion, according to Forbes — is reportedly drafting a confidential filing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) by Friday, May 22, with the help of banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, CNBC reports. This could be one of the biggest public market launches in history, the outlet notes.
“As part of normal governance, we regularly evaluate a range of strategic options,” an OpenAI representative said in a statement, according to CNBC. “Our focus remains on execution.”
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC in April that it is “good hygiene” for the company to “look and feel and act” like a public company.
