Fake $1bn OpenAI investment removed from London Stock Exchange site

A fake announcement of a $1bn investment from a US private equity firm into ChatGPT developer OpenAI has been removed from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) website.

The now-removed announcement on the LSE website said that New York-based firm Ripplewood would be a “driving force in the fund” and that “in the event of a possible IPO a ChatGPT stake is a giant valuable asset”.

The fake investment, based on a press release of unknown origins, also said: “The AI-supported investment opportunity is intended to be a user-friendly and cost-efficient solution to optimise investors’ portfolios. The market launch of the AI-supported investment option is planned for the end of 2023 if participation in OpenAI is successful.”

First reported by the Evening Standard, Ripplewood is investigating the fake investment. Ripplewood founder and CEO Tim Collins said: “This is illegal. We have contacted the authorities.”

The announcement first appeared on the news wire site EQS. A spokesperson for EQS said: “Due to the negative feedback after the publication today we decided to deactivate the account for now. We will further investigate.”

The story was then put on the LSE’s regulatory news site, the exchange said it would remove the announcement after it was discovered to be untrue.

A spokesperson for the London Stock Exchange Group told UKTN: “We were made aware of a potentially erroneous press release being displayed on the London Stock Exchange website and other news platforms.

“The non-regulatory press release originated from one of our newswire partners and upon notification from them, the press release was deleted from our website.”