Gabe Newell, the head of Valve and Steam, invested millions in OpenAI in 2018. This has now been officially announced. Today, he would hardly recognize the company he invested in back then.
The English-language magazine PCGamer reports that Gabe Newell donated millions to OpenAI in 2018 and was at times one of its largest funders. The background for the information is likely a lawsuit currently underway between OpenAI’s head, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk. The relevant data comes from the court records.
It is said to involve a total of “20,008,279 dollars from Gabe Newell,” who allegedly served as an “informal advisor” to the company during that time. Whether he is still involved with the company is unclear.
Today, the founder of Valve would hardly recognize OpenAI. The company he supported in 2018 is now a completely different firm.
From a Non-Profit Organization to a Billion-Dollar Company
What has changed at OpenAI? The company OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization, primarily advocating for the ethical use and development of AI.
In 2018, when Gabe Newell is listed as the second-largest funder for OpenAI, the organization pursued its original mission as a non-profit aimed at ensuring that general artificial intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity, with a focus on open research and safety. This is stated in the report “Exploring the Limits of AI: OpenAI’s Ethical and Strategic Dilemma,” published on Researchgate by two universities.
Open developments include the development of a Dota 2 bot by OpenAI, which the company still lists on its own website.
With the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022, the landscape of OpenAI changed radically: OpenAI established itself as a leading company in the field of artificial intelligence, increasing its revenue from 28 million USD at the beginning of 2022 to 1.6 billion USD by the end of 2023. However, this obscures the fact that OpenAI is still incurring billions in losses (around Heise.de).
The CEO of Valve has not been actively involved in game development for years. He actually just wanted to support his team and be a part of them. However, that went wrong because no one wanted to give him any pushback: Gabe Newell stopped developing games over 10 years ago; his colleagues had too much respect
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