Sept 27 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) has left negotiations

to participate in an OpenAI funding round expected to raise

about $6.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday.

The tech giant recently fell out of the talks for the round,

set to close next week, the newspaper said, citing a person

familiar with the matter.

Other firms, such as Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Nvidia, have also been in

talks to participate, the report said, adding that Microsoft ( MSFT ) was

expected to invest about $1 billion after having already poured

$13 billion into the company.

Last month, the Journal first reported that Apple ( AAPL ) was in the

talks, as part of OpenAI's new fund-raising effort that could

value the ChatGPT maker above $100 billion.

The high valuation is a result of the AI arms race OpenAI

sparked with its launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, spurring

companies across industries to invest billions in the technology

to stay ahead of the competition and capture market share.