Publicly traded AI and blockchain firm Eightco Holdings (ORBS) has upped its investment in leading artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, making an additional $40 million investment in the firm behind popular chatbot ChatGPT.
The investment brings its total backing to $90 million in the firm led by co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, accounting for 30% of its entire treasury.
“We believe our investment in OpenAI represents a transformative opportunity not only for ORBS, but for our shareholders,” said Eightco CEO Kevin O’Donnell in a statement.
“Access to high-growth private companies has historically been limited to institutional investors, and we’re proud to offer retail investors meaningful exposure to one of the most important AI companies in the world,” he added.
The investment comes one week after the firm announced a $125 million fundraising injection from Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies, Kraken parent company Payward, and Ark Invest, the investment firm of noted technology investor Cathie Wood.
Alongside its investment, Eightco also added BitMine Chairman Tom Lee to its board of directors. (Disclaimer: Lee is an angel investor in Myriad, the prediction market platform operated by Decrypt‘s parent company, Dastan.)
“This investment highlights our continued belief in the long-term impact of artificial intelligence and positions ORBS at the forefront of innovation as this technology reshapes industries globally,” said O’Donnell.
Beyond its OpenAI investment, the firm manages holdings of 11,068 ETH valued at $23.6 million, as well as $76 million in cash and stablecoins. Its largest crypto position is in Worldcoin (WLD), the native token for the proof-of-humanity blockchain project co-founded by Altman.
As of Friday, Eightco held 277,222,975 WLD tokens—almost 10% of the entire WLD circulating supply—valued around $89.2 million.
Last year, the firm raised $250 million to create a digital asset treasury with a focus on Worldcoin. Upon that September news, shares in the firm skyrocketed as much as 5,000%, hitting a 52-week high of $83.12 according to data from Yahoo Finance.
On the day, shares have dropped more than 4% to change hands at around $0.90—down nearly 93% in the last six months.
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