June 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI has

acquired search and database analytics startup Rockset to

provide better infrastructure for its enterprise products, the

ChatGPT maker said on Friday.

The companies did not disclose the deal size. OpenAI used

its shares to buy the company in a stock deal that valued

Rockset at a few hundred millions, marking it one of its largest

acquisitions by the fast rising AI lab, according to sources

familiar with the matter.

OpenAI declined to comment on deal details. The company was

last valued at $86 billion in a tender offer by investors

earlier this year.

Rockset, founded by former engineers at Meta,

builds real-time search and analytics databases, and has

benefited from the use of artificial intelligence in

applications from chatbots and detecting anomalies.

Backed by Greylock, Sequoia and Hewlett Packard Enterprise's ( HPE )

venture capital arm, Rockset said last year it had

raised $105 million in total funding.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Rockset said its team will join OpenAI and the technology

will power the retrieval infrastructure of the ChatGPT maker's

enterprise products.

This means Rockset's expertise in real-time data processing

and vector search will enhance OpenAI's ability to quickly

access and analyze vast amounts of information, likely leading

to faster and more accurate responses from AI models, as it

tries to sell enterprises tools to rapidly index and search

among their data.

CONTEXT

OpenAI is looking to stay ahead of the curve by expanding

its offerings, built on the success of its consumer-facing

product ChatGPT.

OpenAI has pitched ChatGPT Enterprise, the enterprise

version of its chatbot and its AI services known as APIs, to

executives at large enterprises.

It is also integrating new functionalities in ChatGPT and

developing new AI models to fend off competition from the likes

of Alphabet's Google and Anthropic, among others.

Reuters reported last month OpenAI has been developing a

search engine product to potentially compete with Google and AI

search startup Perplexity.