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RocketBoots (ASX:ROC) presents a compelling high-growth investment opportunity with its AI-driven, scalable SaaS model, targeting a $2.4 billion+ market across retail and banking. Backed by strong enterprise adoption, a robust pipeline of customer sites, and a track record of delivering proven cost-saving solutions, ROC is primed for global expansion and sustained recurring revenue growth.
Since its inception in 2004 as an internet application consultancy, RocketBoots has evolved into a leader in AI-powered software, helping businesses enhance operations and elevate customer experiences. The company delivers proprietary solutions that drive measurable impact. Its technology addresses key business challenges—reducing operational costs, preventing self-checkout losses and staff fraud—while simultaneously improving service quality, increasing sales, and strengthening customer loyalty.
RocketBoots offers a unique, all-in-one software platform for loss prevention, workforce management, and customer experience optimization. Its advanced technology empowers retailers to detect potential theft and identify staff fraud at registers.
Company Highlights
- Mission: RocketBoots empowers global retail and banking giants to slash operating expenses and losses while boosting service, sales and customer loyalty.
- Proven Tech: Validated internationally by top retailers and banks, RocketBoots’ AI-powered software delivers a strong ROI and fuels long-term customer retention. Demand is proven.
- The Advantage: The company’s flagship platform uniquely unifies loss prevention, workforce management, and customer experience — a game-changer for integrated store and branch operations.
- Expert team: Led by seasoned executives and AI specialists, RocketBoots has a strong track record of delivering its cutting-edge computer vision and machine learning software internationally.
- Scale Without Limits: The company’s hybrid cloud/on-prem architecture enables rapid scaling across thousands of locations without massive infrastructure investment or staffing increases.
- Explosive Growth Potential: With a more than 35,000-site global enterprise pipeline and nine international trials already completed or nearing completion (including multinational retailers), RocketBoots is primed for global expansion.
- Massive Market: The more than $2.4 billion addressable market (just retail grocery and branch banking in current territories) is only the beginning. The company is eyeing adjacent sectors, new geographies, and expanding its software portfolio.
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RocketBoots
Investor Insight
RocketBoots is a high-growth investment opportunity with an AI-based scalable SaaS model, targeting a $2.4 billion+ market in retail and banking. With strong enterprise adoption, a significant customer site pipeline, and proven cost-saving solutions, ROC is well-positioned for global expansion and recurring revenue growth.
Overview
RocketBoots (ASX:ROC), an Australian innovator in AI-driven computer vision software products, is transforming the retail and financial services landscape. Evolving from its 2004 inception as an internet application consultancy, RocketBoots now stands at the forefront of AI-powered software, empowering businesses to optimize operations and elevate customer experiences.
RocketBoots' proprietary solutions leverage the combined power of machine learning, advanced analytics and cloud computing to deliver tangible results. The company’s technology tackles critical challenges, slashing operational costs, mitigating self-checkout losses and staff fraud, while simultaneously boosting service, sales and customer loyalty.
Real-world Impact, Proven Results
Deployed across major banks, large retail chains, and trialing with multinational enterprises, RocketBoots' impact is undeniable. Four contracted customers on multi-year terms, coupled with a growing pipeline of trials and opportunities, demonstrate the company's ability to deliver significant value.
$2.4 Billion+ Market Opportunity
Operating in a high-growth sector, RocketBoots targets a total addressable market (TAM) exceeding $2.4 billion across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the European Union and North America. Its cloud-based platform enables seamless scalability, managing software deployments across global locations from its Sydney headquarters. RocketBoots utilizes a recurring revenue SaaS model, following a one-time activation fee, ensuring predictable and sustainable growth. Future expansion into new geographies and software portfolio additions promises further TAM growth.
Poised for Explosive Growth
With a global enterprise pipeline of over 35,000 retail and banking locations, RocketBoots is primed for significant expansion. The company is aggressively pursuing international growth, with the potential to secure contracts for over 10,000 sites from its existing nine customers who are already engaged in paid contracts, trials or evaluations for major/multi-year agreements.
Leadership and Innovation
RocketBoots is led by seasoned executives with deep expertise in AI, technology commercialization and financial markets. The company’s unwavering commitment to innovation, data security and enterprise-grade scalability mitigates key risks associated with new technology adoption.
Company Highlights
- Mission: RocketBoots empowers global retail and banking giants to slash operating expenses and losses while boosting service, sales and customer loyalty.
- Proven Tech: Validated internationally by top retailers and banks, RocketBoots’ AI-powered software delivers a strong ROI and fuels long-term customer retention. Demand is proven.
- The Advantage: The company’s flagship platform uniquely unifies loss prevention, workforce management, and customer experience — a game-changer for integrated store and branch operations.
- Expert team: Led by seasoned executives and AI specialists, RocketBoots has a strong track record of delivering its cutting-edge computer vision and machine learning software internationally.
- Scale Without Limits: The company’s hybrid cloud/on-prem architecture enables rapid scaling across thousands of locations without massive infrastructure investment or staffing increases.
- Explosive Growth Potential: With a more than 35,000-site global enterprise pipeline and nine international trials already completed or nearing completion (including multinational retailers), RocketBoots is primed for global expansion.
- Massive Market: The more than $2.4 billion addressable market (just retail grocery and branch banking in current territories) is only the beginning. The company is eyeing adjacent sectors, new geographies, and expanding its software portfolio.
Key Technology
RocketBoots provides a unique unified loss prevention, workforce management and customer experience software platform.
The company’s technology enables retailers to:
- Automatically detect potential theft at self-checkouts
- Automatically detect staff fraud at registers e.g. sweethearting
- Revolutionise workforce planning:
- Lower cost staffing with no service impact
- Improved service to reduce queue abandonment & lost sales
Rocketboots also enables retail banks to:
- Revolutionise omni channel workforce planning:
- Lower cost staffing with no service impact
- Improved service to reduce abandonment and lost sales
- Speed up digital channel customer response times by unlocking hybrid working opportunities through precise scheduling of branch staff latent capacity and idle time
- Computer vision – Analyzes live and recorded video feeds to detect, track and interpret human behavior, vehicle movement and in-store activity.
- A hybrid, highly scalable cloud/on-prem architecture that enables secure, remotely managed deployment across customer sites all over the world.
- Out-of-the-box user interfaces that show:
- SCO theft risk alerts
- Fraud risk alerts
- Real-time and historical service and workforce related analysis
- Future staff scheduling and rosters
- Edge computing – Reduces cloud bandwidth costs and enhances data security by processing video on-site while only syncing key insights to the cloud.
- APIs – Enables integration with enterprise systems such as POS (point-of-sale), workforce management and CRM (customer relationship management) platforms.
- Enterprise-grade security and compliance – Regularly penetration-tested and aligned with the security requirements of global banks and retailers.
Retail Applications
Reduce loss and staff costs whilst simultaneously improving customer experience and productivity.
Banking Applications
RocketBoots enables banks to materially reduce operational expenses whilst simultaneously improving customer experience, loyalty & NPS.
Leadership Team
Joel Rappolt – Chief Executive Officer
An experienced technology entrepreneur, Joel Rappolt joined RocketBoots in 2007 and has been CEO since 2013. He has led the company's transition from delivering app development services into developing software products that leverage machine learning, computer vision and IoT to solve longstanding business problems.
Robin Hilliard – Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Robin Hilliard founded RocketBoots in 2004 and has guided its evolution into a focus on computer vision research and software products. With over four decades of experience in software development, he has been the CTO since 2013.
Roy Mckelvie – Independent Chair and Non-executive Director
Roy Mckelvie is the chairman of Encompass Corporation, Wagesafe Limited and Infocus Wealth Management. He is the former CEO of Transfield Holdings and Gresham Private Equity, and previous managing director and Asian head of Deutsche Bank Capital Partners in Hong Kong .
Aaron Seeto – Chief Financial Officer
Aaron Seeto has more than 13 years of experience as an outsourced CFO for private and public companies across various industries, including technology, legal and financial services, and hospitality.
Karl Medak – Non-executive Director
Karl Medak has nearly 40 years of experience in the information and communications technology sector, having worked with organizations such as Telstra, Ericsson Australia and Lend Lease Communications. He co-founded The Frame Group in 2000 and has been a non-executive director of RocketBoots since 2007.
Cameron Petricevic – Company Secretary and Non-executive Director
Cameron Petricevic has more than 17 years of experience in the financial industry, with roles at AXA Asia Pacific Holdings and Acorn Capital. He is a partner at Kentgrove Equity Partners and has extensive experience in valuations, mergers & acquisitions and portfolio management.Superpowers for in-person service businesses using AI
Tech Weekly: Tech Stocks React to Fed, AI News and Geopolitical Tensions
The news was initially met with optimistic market sentiment, buoying NVIDIA shares and related AI-focused tech stocks.
Similarly, data center developers experienced a surge in their stock prices due to the increasing need for AI infrastructure. This was further fueled by announcements of significant expansion projects, such as the Stargate initiative. This rally hasn’t translated to ongoing price momentum at this point.
Global markets gained ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Tuesday (September 23) remarks, in Providence, Rhode Island, during which he offered cautious guidance and dimmed hopes for near-term rate cuts.
Meanwhile, Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) marked a milestone, breaking 30,000.
The milestone came as Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem stressed the urgent need for economic reforms to counteract risks from US trade protectionism and the US dollar's declining safe-haven status.
A more cautious tone emerged midweek, with analysts and investors weighing potential risks around the scale of the deal, including concerns about circular financing and renewed questions about market concentration.
Oracle's (NYSE:ORCL) issuance of US$18 billion in public debt to expand its AI data center operations fueled concerns about escalating leverage risks. Meanwhile, at the macro leve, factors such as stronger-than-expected US unemployment numbers, and geopolitical tension after US President Donald Trump’s contentious remarks at the UN General Assembly, contributed to a market pause. Major US indexes marked their third straight day of losses on Thursday (September 25), with the tech sector bearing much of the brunt.
Nasdaq-100 performance, September 19 to 26, 2025.
Chart via Nasdaq.
The market rebounded slightly on Friday (September 26) as the latest US personal consumption expenditures index data aligned with expectations, giving investors relief and a sense of continued stability.
The Nasdaq-100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX) and S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) posted modest losses for the week, reflecting a wait-and-see mood heading into the fourth quarter.
3 stocks that moved markets this week
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
- Share price performance: Shares of Apple have risen 11.45 percent since September 12 pre-orders, positively impacted by strong iPhone 17 sales exceeding expectations.
- News highlights: Demand for entry-level iPhone 17 models remains robust, with Morgan Stanley analysts noting possible implications from extended delivery times.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)
- Share price performance: Shares of Intel rose 19.65 percent this week as the legacy tech company continued to strengthen its market position.
- News highlights: After securing funding from NVIDIA last week, Intel is reportedly seeking investment from Apple for its struggling chipmaking business, which is partly US government-owned. Early discussions also included closer collaboration between Apple and Intel, though an agreement is not guaranteed. Intel has also reportedly approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM).
GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS)
- Share price performance: GlobalFoundries, a major US-based semiconductor manufacturer with significant domestic fabrication capacity, jumped as much as 11.49 percent on Friday after reports emerged of a new 1:1 ratio mandate.
- News highlights: The US said it is planning to implement a 1:1 chip production rule to reduce reliance on overseas semiconductor supply. Under this proposal, chip manufacturers would be required to produce domestically as many semiconductors as their customers import from foreign suppliers. Companies failing to maintain this 1:1 domestic-to-import production ratio over time may face tariffs.
ETF performance
Gains across AI-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this week reflected ongoing investor optimism for AI innovation and infrastructure buildup. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) led the pack with a 1.74 percent increase, followed by the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXQ), which gained 0.85 percent, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX), which advanced by 0.82 percent.
Other market news
- The Trump administration’s proclamation imposing a US$100,000 fee on H-1B visas has sparked debate, with some industry leaders viewing it as a potential boon for tech recruitment in other countries due to increased cost pressures on US companies.
- Canada said it would launch a new AI task force aimed at revamping national AI policies to accelerate research commercialization and global market integration. The task force is tasked with delivering recommendations within 30 days.
- Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) said its AI Foundry platform will integrate advanced data analytics into Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) factories producing military aircraft and other defense assets, enhancing AI-driven operational efficiencies.
- Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI) introduced new AI systems optimized for data centers and edge computing at INNOVATE! EMEA 2025. The portfolio features NVIDIA RTX Pro, HGX B300 GPUs, and edge-optimized processors that meet high-performance server and localized AI inference demands, with global manufacturing across the US, Netherlands, Taiwan and Malaysia.
- Micron Technologies (CSE:MWM) delivered strong fiscal Q4 2025 earnings, driven by surging AI demand for memory products in data centers. The company reported US$11.3 billion in revenue and US$3.2 billion in net income, significantly above expectations. Looking ahead, Micron forecasts robust revenue and margin growth for Q1 2026, buoyed by accelerating AI adoption. The market reacted positively, with shares rising and analysts upgrading ratings.
- OpenAI said it plans to invest roughly US$400 billion to develop five new US data center sites in Texas, New Mexico and Ohio, in partnership with Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and SoftBank Group (TSE:9984). The new locations will eventually have a capacity of 7 gigawatts of power. The plans were announced by executives from the three tech firms at a press conference in Abilene, Texas. The company also inked two new deals to expand its AI cloud infrastructure capacity and integration capabilities with CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) and Databricks.
- Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) shares hit a four year high on Monday after CEO Eddie Wu announced plans to accelerate global investment to nearly US$4 trillion over five years, rolling out Qwen models and full-stack AI. Cathie Wood’s funds reopened positions in the Chinese company for the first time in four years.
Tech news to watch next week
- TikTok deal developments: Watch for updates on on
going TikTok negotiations, as regulatory and geopolitical scrutiny persists. Any breakthroughs or setbacks could have significant implications for global tech and social media landscapes.
- Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) antitrust case: In the Google ad tech antitrust lawsuit, Judge Leonie Brinkema, who is overseeing the case, has recently voiced skepticism about ordering Google to divest part of its ad technology business. Next week’s court proceedings or filings may provide insight into the case trajectory and potential outcomes that could reshape online advertising markets.
- Fermi America IPO: Fermi America, the data center developer founded by former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, prepares for a Nasdaq IPO targeting a valuation near US$13 billion on October 1. The outcome and investor reception to this IPO will serve as a bellwether for the AI infrastructure sector and data center buildout investment appetite.
Don't forget to follow us @INN_Technology for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
How to Invest in OpenAI's ChatGPT
In September 2024, Reuters reported that OpenAI was planning a restructuring from a non-profit to a for-profit company in order to make it "more attractive to investors."
However, after encountering backlash and potential legal conflicts, in May 2025 OpenAI's management decided to remain a non-profit while still converting its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation.
That plan is easier as of mid-September 2025, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the company's tech partner and major funder Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have reached a new road-block-clearing, but currently non-binding, deal. The Journal reported that the OpenAI nonprofit company and Microsoft would each have a stake of about 30 percent in the for-profit firm.
OpenAI launched a new round of funding totaling US$40 billion in late March 2025 projected to bring its valuation to US$300 billion. Japanese multinational investment firm SoftBank made up 75 percent of the funding, while Microsoft, and investment firms Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital and Thrive Capital also took part in the raise.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a US$200 million contract to OpenAI in June 2025 to provide the DoD with artificial intelligence tools for addressing national security challenges, including cyber defense and warfare.
Massive news dropped on September 22, 2025, that NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) plans to invest US$100 billion in OpenAI through a strategic partnership centered on the generative AI company deploying a minimum of 10 gigawatts of AI datacenters using NVIDIA's systems. If the deal is finalized, the pair expect to deploy the first gigawatt in H2 2026.
Many investors are wondering if it's possible to invest in ChatGPT stock, and if there are other ways to invest in generative AI and OpenAI. Here the Investing News Network (INN) answers those questions and more, shedding light on this new landscape.
In this article
- What is OpenAI's ChatGPT?
- What is the Stargate Project?
- How much has Microsoft invested in OpenAI?
- What is Elon Musk's relationship to OpenAI?
- OpenAI criticisms and lawsuits
- What's the future of OpenAI and ChatGPT?
- When will OpenAI go public?
- Which stocks will benefit the most from AI chatbot technology?
- FAQs for investing in OpenAI and ChatGPT
What is OpenAI's ChatGPT?
Created by San Francisco-based tech lab OpenAI, ChatGPT is a generative AI software application that uses a machine learning technique called reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) to emulate human-written conversations based on a large range of user prompts. This kind of software is better known as an AI chatbot.
ChatGPT learns language by training on texts gleaned from across the internet, including online encyclopedias, books, academic journals, news sites and blogs. Based on this training, the AI chatbot generates text by making predictions about which words (or tokens) can be strung together to produce the most suitable response.
More than a million people engaged with ChatGPT within the first week of its launch for free public testing on November 30, 2022. The introduction of ChatGPT quickly ushered in a new era in the tech industry.
“With the launch of ChatGPT late in 2022, the true scale of its disruptive potential was more realized across the world in 2023,” said Naseem Husain, senior vice president and exchange-traded fund (ETF) strategist at Horizons ETFs, in an interview with the Investing News Network. “Its success has sparked a wave of generative and chat AI models, from Midjourney to Grok.”
Based on this success, OpenAI created a more powerful version of the ChatGPT system called GPT-4, which was released in March 2023. This iteration of ChatGPT can accept visual inputs, is much more precise and can display a higher level of expertise in various subjects. Because of this, GPT-4 can describe images in vivid detail and ace standardized tests.
Unlike its predecessor, GPT-4 doesn't have any time limits on what information it can access; however, AI researcher and professor Dr. Oren Etzioni has said that the chatbot is still terrible at discussing the future and generating new ideas. It also hasn't lost its tendency to deliver incorrect information with too high a degree of confidence.
Further improving on its product, in May 2024 OpenAI launched Chat GPT-4o, with the o standing for omni. OpenAI describes GPT-4o as "a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction—it accepts as input any combination of text, audio, image, and video and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs."
This version has done away with the lagging response time afflicting GPT-4. This proves especially helpful for producing immediate translations during conversations between speakers of different languages. It also allows users to interrupt the chatbot to pose a new query to modify responses.
More recently, in December 2024, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Pro subscriptions targeting engineers and academics. For US$200 monthly, users have nearly unlimited access to all ChatGPT models and tools.
The ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT-4 platforms are free to use, and can be accessed via the web. Those with an iPhone or iPad can also use ChatGPT through an app, and an Android version launched in July 2023. OpenAI also launched a paid subscription, ChatGPT Plus for business use, in August 2023. ChatGPT Plus gives users access to GPT-4 and the newest iteration GPT-4o.
ChatGPT-5 was released on August 7, 2025. OpenAI bills this latest iteration of its generative AI technology as a "significant leap in intelligence over all our previous models, featuring state-of-the-art performance across coding, math, writing, health, visual perception, and more." The basic version is available to all users, while there are upgraded capabilities for Plus and Pro subscribers.
However, for some techies GPT-5 does not live up to the hype. Following the release, users took to social media to express their disappointment and report humorous errors made by the chatbot.
What is the Stargate Project?
The Stargate Project is an AI joint venture focused on building new AI infrastructure in the US through US$500 billion in investments. It was announced on January 21, 2025.
Stargate’s initial funding is coming from OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and UAE-based technology fund MGX. In addition to OpenAI and Oracle, Stargate’s technology partners include Microsoft, NVIDIA, and British semiconductor and software design company Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM).
Newly re-elected US President Donald Trump unveiled Stargate during a press conference at the White House highlighting the importance of investment in US AI infrastructure. During the announcement, OpenAI’s Altman, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son credited Trump’s return to office as a major catalyst in making Stargate a reality. The construction of data centers for the Stargate Project are already underway in Texas, according to Ellison.
How much has Microsoft invested in OpenAI?
Ascannio / Shutterstock
Over the years, Microsoft has reportedly invested nearly US$14 billion in OpenAI to help the small tech firm create its ultra-powerful AI chatbot.
As for how Microsoft could benefit from its investment in OpenAI, OpenAI officially licensed its technologies to Microsoft in 2020 in a then-exclusive partnership. Indeed, Pitchbook has described the deal as an “unprecedented milestone” for generative AI technology. Since then, Microsoft has made good use of OpenAI’s technology in developing new advancement in its Azure cloud computing business.
However, the relationship between the two has changed in recent months.
Notably, Microsoft is not a financier of the Stargate Project joint venture, and is instead just described as a technology partner. According to OpenAI’s press release, the new joint venture builds on its existing partnership with Microsoft.
Microsoft’s lack of a funding role in Stargate led some to wonder if the trillion-dollar tech firm had soured on its relationship with OpenAI. This conclusion was understandable given reports that Microsoft refused to make a bigger contribution than the US$750 million it invested during the OpenAI US$6.6 billion funding round in October 2024.
Additionally, Microsoft changed the contract between the two companies and is no longer the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI, but has the right of first refusal for deals the AI firm may make with other cloud companies.
As Bloomberg technology reporter Dina Bass explained, Microsoft stands to benefit from its role as a technology partner without having to invest a dime into the project.
“Microsoft views the revised contract with OpenAI as advantageous, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. The software giant retains its share of OpenAI’s revenue and is the largest investor in a company that may now become even more valuable — though the size of that stake could change as the startup works to restructure as a for-profit,” wrote Bass. “And Microsoft also still has access to OpenAI models, even if they’re trained in a data center funded by Softbank or Oracle.”
In the spring of 2025, there were reports that Microsoft and OpenAI's relationship was on the brink of a big breakup. The tech giant had been pushing for a much larger percentage of OpenAI's revenues than the 20 percent it currently enjoys. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in June 2025, OpenAI was considering making antitrust complaints about Microsoft to regulators. However, it seems the pair of tech companies have reached a more amenable consensus about the future of ChatGPT and their partnership.
"OpenAI is also putting final touches on the ownership structure behind the new for-profit company it is trying to create. The company said it plans to keep the nonprofit’s control over the new for-profit and endow it with a stake valued at more than $100 billion," reported WSJ. "That would make the nonprofit one of the largest philanthropies in the world on paper, although it is unclear how long it would take for funds to be available for distribution."
Elon Musk's position on OpenAI
DIA TV / Shutterstock
OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, its current CEO, as well as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and other big-name investors, such as venture capitalist Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Musk left his position on OpenAI's board of directors in 2018 to focus on Tesla and its pursuit of autonomous vehicle technology.
A few days after ChatGPT became available for public testing, Musk took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say, “ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI.” That same day, he announced that X had shut the door on OpenAI’s access to its database so it could no longer use it for RLHF training.
His reason: “OpenAI was started as open-source & non-profit. Neither are still true.”
Furthering his feud with OpenAI, Musk filed a lawsuit against the company in March 2024 for an alleged breach of contract. The crux of his complaint was that OpenAI has broken the "founding agreement" made between the founders (Altman, Greg Brockman and himself) that the company would remain a non-profit. Altman and OpenAI have denied there was such an agreement and that Musk was keen on an eventual for-profit structure.
Musk dropped the lawsuit three months later without giving a reason, reported Reuters. The day before he dropped the lawsuit, he reacted to the news that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is partnering with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT with Apple devices. On X, Musk declared, "If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS (operating system) level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.” It should be noted that OpenAI has said queries completed on Apple devices will not be stored by OpenAI. By August 2024, Musk had resumed his litigation in federal court.
It seems that the US government also has questions about the restructuring of the private company and the involvement of tech giant Microsoft, as reported by Bloomberg. In early January 2025, the Financial Press also reported the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has raised questions about the potential anti-trust violations in the newly emerging AI technology space arising from Microsoft's partnership with and investments in OpenAI.
Of course, Musk took to X to weigh in on the Stargate Project, suggesting OpenAI and its partners don’t actually have the US$500 million they’ve pledged to invest. Sam Altman was quick to reply, telling Musk he’s mistaken and inviting him to visit their data center under construction in Texas.
However, Musk is not alone in his skepticism. For example, Atreides Management Chief Investment Office Gavin Baker also questioned the deal on X. “Stargate is a great name but the $500b is a ridiculous number and no one should take it seriously,” Baker wrote, backing up his statement by explaining the financial positions of each of the partners. “Nowhere close to $500b. Everyone should just start issuing press releases for $1 trillion AI projects.”
OpenAI criticisms and lawsuits
While ChatGPT has served as a major step forward in generative AI technology, there are many technical and ethical concerns with the program that have emerged since it launched, including fears over job destruction and targeted disinformation campaigns.
Accuracy of information in ChatGPT's answers is not guaranteed. Its selection of which words to string together are actually predictions — not as fallible as mere guesses, but still fallible. Even the 4.0 version is “still is not fully reliable (it “hallucinates” facts and makes reasoning errors),” says the company, which emphasizes that users should exercise caution when employing the technology.
Indeed, ChatGPT's failings can have dangerous real-life consequences. Among other negative applications, the tech can be used to spread misinformation, carry out phishing email scams or write malicious code.
There’s also the fear among teachers that the technology is leading to an unwelcome rise in academic dishonesty, with students using ChatGPT to write essays or complete their homework.
“Teachers and school administrators have been scrambling to catch students using the tool to cheat, and they are fretting about the havoc ChatGPT could wreak on their lesson plans,” writes New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose.
Many lawsuits against OpenAI have emerged as well. Multiple news outlets, including the the New York Times, have launched copyright lawsuits against OpenAI, and some of the plaintiffs are also seeking damages from the private tech firm’s very public partner Microsoft.
Additionally, the Authors Guild, which represents a group of prominent authors, launched a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI that is calling for a licensing system that would allow authors to opt out of having their books used to train AI, and would require AI companies to pay for the material they do use.
In October, OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji blew the whistle on the company, reporting that the firm was violating US copyright laws. He died one month later in what was ruled a suicide, but the investigation is still open.
Cybersecurity risks are also a concern for ChatGPT users, and recent events along these lines add validity to Musk's warning. For one, in 2024 ChatGPT for macOS was discovered to be breaching Apple's security rules by storing data as plain text rather than encryption, making it possible for other apps to access.
What's the future of OpenAI and ChatGPT?
What about the long-term goals for OpenAI and ChatGPT? For most of the tech leaders in this space, the end game is artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a system that can perform any function the human brain can, including self-teaching, abstract thinking and understanding cause and effect.
As uptake increases, AI technology is taking over the role of humans and will likely continue doing so in a number of fields, from content creation and customer service to transcription and translation services, and even in graphic design, software engineering and paralegal fields.
In addition to Microsoft's use of the ChatGPT technology as part of Copilot, other companies are working with OpenAI to incorporate the technology into their platforms, including Canva, Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL), Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE), Intercom, Salesforce (NASDAQ:CRM), Stripe, Tinder, Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) and Visa (NYSE:V).
For 2025, OpenAI is focusing on developing agentic AI capabilities into its ChatGPT platform. Agentic AI, a part of the evolution towards AGI, involves AI systems and models that can act autonomously and complete tasks without much human guidance. Early in January, OpenAI announced the rollout of new task features for ChatGPT Pro, Plus and Teams users. While still in the beta stage, these features allow users to schedule future tasks to be completed by ChatGPT, such as a weekly news brief or reminders about important meetings.
OpenAI first debuted its foray into agentic AI in September 2024 with the introduction of ChatGPT o1, stating "We've developed a new series of AI models designed to spend more time thinking before they respond." The release of the next iterations of this model, ChatGPT o3 mini and o4 mini happened in the first half of 2025.
The recent release of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI assistant may present a problem for OpenAI and the US tech industry as a whole. In what tech gurus like Marc Andreesen call AI’s Sputnik moment, DeepSeek unseated ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app in the Apple App Store, at reportedly a fraction of the cost. For reference, in 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, the earth’s first artificial satellite, beating out the United States and sparking a Cold War space exploration race between the two nations.
The DeepSeek launch set off a significant sell off in technology stocks on January 27, 2025, especially among the Magnificent Seven members, including NVIDIA, Microsoft and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
When will OpenAI go public?
OpenAI stock is not currently publicly traded, and despite the plan to transition to include both a non-profit and for-profit business, there are no signs of an on initial public offering (IPO) in the works for 2025. For now, investors can gain exposure through related tech companies discussed below.
Which stocks will benefit the most from AI chatbot technology?
While most companies specializing in generative AI remain in the venture capital stage, there are plenty of AI stocks for those interested in the space. INN's article 5 Canadian Artificial Intelligence Stocks, ASX AI Stocks: 5 Biggest Companies, Global AI Stocks: 9 Biggest Companies in 2025 and 12 Generative AI Stocks to Watch as ChatGPT Soars includes some examples.
Other than companies directly tied to generative AI technology, which stocks are likely to get a boost from generative AI advancements?
There are several verticals in the tech industry with indirect exposure to AI chatbot technology, such as semiconductors, network equipment providers, cloud providers, central processing unit manufacturers and internet of things.
Some of the publicly traded companies in these verticals include:
- Graphics processing unit leader NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)
- The world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM)
- Computer memory and data storage producer Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)
- Digital communications firm Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)
- Networking products provider Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)
- Semiconductor producer Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ:MRVL)
- Cloud-computing Amazon Web Services' parent company Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
- Bluechip multinational technology company IBM (NYSE:IBM)
- Major semiconductor chip manufacturer Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)
Investors who don’t like to put all their eggs in one basket can check out these 5 Artificial Intelligence ETFs. And if you’re looking for a more general overview of the market, INN has you covered with How to Invest in Artificial Intelligence.
You can also take a look back at the market with our AI Market 2024 Year-End Review and AI Market Update: Q2 2025 in Review, or read projections for AI this year in our AI Market Forecast: 3 Top Trends that will Affect AI in 2025. Generative AI is also a major theme in the Top 10 Emerging Technologies to Watch.
FAQs for investing in OpenAI and ChatGPT
How is OpenAI funded?
OpenAI raised US$57.9 billion over 11 funding rounds from 2016 to March 2025.
Top investors include technology investment firm Thrive Capital, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and revolutionary technology investment firm Founders Fund.
What is the market value of ChatGPT/OpenAI?
OpenAI has a market valuation of US$300 billion as of June 2025. The company’s annualized revenue reached the US$10 billion mark in June 2025, up from the US$5.5 billion achieved in December 2024.
Does ChatGPT use NVIDIA chips?
ChatGPT’s distributed computing infrastructure depends upon powerful servers with multiple graphics processing units (GPUs). High-performance NVIDIA GPU chips are preferred for this application as they also provide excellent Compute Unified Device Architecture support.
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is a Chinese AI company that launched new AI-driven, open-source language models known as DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 into the market in January 2025. Reuters reports that "the training of DeepSeek-V3 required less than $6 million worth of computing power from Nvidia H800 chips."
DeepSeek-R1 is designed to compete with the performance of OpenAI-o1 across math, code, and reasoning tasks.
Can ChatGPT make stock predictions?
A University of Florida study from 2023 highlighted the potential for advanced language models such as ChatGPT to accurately predict movements in the stock market using sentiment analysis.
During the course of the study, ChatGPT outperformed traditional sentiment analysis methods, and the finance professors conducting the research concluded that “incorporating advanced language models into the investment decision-making process can yield more accurate predictions and enhance the performance of quantitative trading strategies.”
When to expect ChatGPT 5?
OpenAI's latest version of ChatGPT, GPT-5, was released on August 7, 2025. The basic version is available to all users, while there are upgraded capabilities for Plus and Pro subscribers.
This is an updated version of an article first published by the Investing News Network in 2023.
Don't forget to follow us @INN_Technology for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Tech Weekly: Semiconductor Stocks Rally on Fed Rate Cut and Strategic Deal
Likewise, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem warned that broad-based tariffs and trade tensions pose structural risks to the Canadian economy. He emphasized that, unlike the pandemic bounceback, Canada will not see a quick economic rebound if tariffs persist, as they could permanently lower output and weaken growth across key sectors.
Nasdaq-100 performance, September 12 to 19, 2025.
Chart via Nasdaq.
Against that backdrop, the Nasdaq-100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX) put on a strong performance this week, closing at 24,626.25 on Friday (September 19), up 0.7 percent. The index saw momentum build toward the end of the week, supported by growth in technology and semiconductor stocks.
NVIDIA to take US$5 billion stake in Intel
While the Fed's decision was a key factor for the tech sector this week, a landmark deal stole the spotlight.
A strategic partnership between NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) dominated the news cycle on Thursday (September 18), sending shockwaves through the semiconductor industry.
In a historic move, NVIDIA announced a US$5 billion investment in Intel as part of a new partnership. The companies will collaborate on custom data center and PC products, aiming to jointly develop custom CPUs and GPUs by integrating NVIDIA's AI and accelerated computing technologies with Intel’s x86 platforms for data centers and personal computing.
The deal marks a major realignment in the chip industry focused on AI infrastructure innovation. Shares of both companies finished the week higher, with Intel notching a notable 21 percent increase.
Semiconductor exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also surged in response to the NVIDIA-Intel partnership announcement, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) gaining 4.17 percent, the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXQ) rising 3.93 percent and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) increasing 3.92 percent over the course of the week, reflecting strengthened investor confidence across the sector.
Semiconductor ETF performance, September 16 to 19, 2025.
Chart via Google Finance.
The Intel-NVIDIA collaboration comes after reports this week that China's regulatory authority has instructed major tech firms like Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and ByteDance to stop buying and cancel orders of NVIDIA's AI chip designed for China. The news sent NVIDIA shares down early in the week, but the company ended the period flat.
The collaboration also helped provide a much-needed boost to Intel's share price. The company has struggled with operational challenges and a difficult turnaround effort in the highly competitive semiconductor market.
In a direct reaction to the Intel-NVIDIA deal, shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM) declined on Thursday.
The latter company recovered some of its losses on Friday.
Advanced Micro Devices and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company performance, September 16 to 19, 2025.
Chart via Google Finance.
US and UK sign tech prosperity deal
In other tech news, the US and UK signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday, pledging to boost collaboration in science and tech. Called the Technology Prosperity Deal, the arrangement focuses on civil nuclear power, aiming for independence from Russian fuel by late 2028 and developing new tech like small modular reactors.
The agreement also establishes joint task forces for AI standards and security, as well as quantum computing breakthroughs, and explores civil maritime nuclear applications.
Tech news to watch next week
Next week, investors will have an eye on Micron Technology's (NASDAQ:MU) fiscal Q4 results, scheduled to be released on September 23 after market close. Analysts are estimating revenue of around US$11.15 billion.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN), a professional services company, will also release its fiscal Q4 results next week on September 25, with revenue expected in the US$17 billion range.
Don't forget to follow us @INN_Technology for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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