Sept 13 (Reuters) - Venture capital firm Tiger Global

Management plans to participate in the multi-billion-dollar

funding round for OpenAI, which could value the ChatGPT

developer at $150 billion, a source familiar with the matter

said on Friday.

OpenAI's meteoric popularity has made the startup one of the

biggest players in the artificial intelligence industry and

ignited widespread interest in generative AI, with businesses

racing to capitalize on the technology.

Josh Kushner's venture capital firm Thrive Capital plans to

commit $1 billion, according to the source. The Information,

which reported on Tiger's talks earlier, also said Thrive will

lead the funding round.

The deal, if it comes together, would mark Tiger as a

returning investor in OpenAI, which previously invested $50

million in the company at a $14.5 billion valuation in 2019.

Tiger would join a roster of other high-profile investors,

including Microsoft ( MSFT ), as well as Nvidia ( NVDA ), Apple ( AAPL )

and Abu Dhabi AI investment firm G42, which have

reportedly been in talks to participate in the funding round.

The Sam Altman-led AI startup is raising $6.5 billion from

investors, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, seeking another

$5 billion in debt from banks through a revolving credit

facility.

OpenAI and Tiger Global Management did not immediately

respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The company recently announced the launch of its

"Strawberry" series of AI models, designed to spend more time

processing answers to queries in order to solve complex

problems.