Rain at one level has claimed to buyers that it has held superior talks to promote programs to Google, Oracle, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. Microsoft declined to remark, and the opposite corporations didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Safety Fears
The funding spherical led by Prosperity7 introduced final yr introduced Rain’s whole funding to $33 million as of April 2022. That was sufficient to function by means of early 2025 and valued the corporate at $90 million excluding the brand new money raised, based on the disclosures to buyers. The paperwork cited Altman’s private funding and Rain’s letter of intent with OpenAI as causes to again the corporate.
In a Rain press launch for the fundraise final yr, Altman applauded the startup for taping out a prototype in 2021 and stated it “may vastly cut back the prices of making highly effective AI fashions and can hopefully at some point assist to allow true synthetic basic intelligence.”
Prosperity7’s funding in Rain drew the curiosity of the interagency Committee on Overseas Funding in the US, which has the ability to scuttle offers deemed to threaten nationwide safety.
CFIUS, because the committee is thought, has lengthy been involved about China getting access to superior US semiconductors, and has grown more and more frightened about China utilizing intermediaries within the Center East to quietly be taught extra about crucial expertise, says Nevena Simidjiyska, a companion on the legislation agency Fox Rothschild who helps purchasers with CFIUS critiques. “The federal government doesn’t care in regards to the cash,” she says. “It cares about entry and management and the ability of the overseas celebration.”
Rain obtained a small seed funding from the enterprise unit of Chinese language search engine Baidu apparently with out issues however the bigger Saudi funding attracted vital issues. Prosperity7, a unit of Aramco Ventures, which is a part of state-owned Saudi Aramco, presumably may have let the oil big and different massive corporations within the Center East to change into clients but additionally put Rain into shut contact with the Saudi authorities.
Megan Apper, a spokesperson for CFIUS, says the panel is “dedicated to taking all needed actions inside its authority to safeguard U.S. nationwide safety” however that “per legislation and apply, CFIUS doesn’t publicly touch upon transactions that it might or will not be reviewing.”
Knowledge disclosed by CFIUS reveals it critiques a whole lot of offers yearly and within the few instances the place it has issues sometimes works out safeguards, equivalent to barring a overseas investor from taking a board seat. It couldn’t be realized why the committee required full divestment from Rain.
Three attorneys who often work on delicate offers say they might not recall any earlier Saudi Arabian offers totally blocked by CFIUS. “Divestment itself has been fairly uncommon over the previous 20 years and has largely been a treatment reserved for Chinese language buyers,” says Luciano Racco, cochair of the worldwide commerce and nationwide safety apply at legislation agency Foley Hoag.
OpenAI doubtless wants to seek out companions with deep-pocketed backers whether it is to achieve some management over its {hardware} wants. Opponents Amazon and Google have spent years creating their very own customized chips for AI tasks and might fund them with income from their profitable core companies. Altman has refused to rule out OpenAI making its personal chips, however that too would require vital funding.