Asia Tech Wire (Sep 20) -- OpenAI is asking investors to contribute at least $250 million in a new funding round, according to The Information.

Recently, OpenAI was in late-stage negotiations for a huge round of funding that could value the company at $150 billion.

Thursday's report cited people familiar with the matter as saying that the company has asked investors to contribute at least $250 million.

The news comes as OpenAI is closing in on a new funding round of $5 billion to $7 billion, led by Thrive Capital, which has committed to invest $1 billion.

Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple are in talks to invest. The tech companies' share of the round is due to be $2 billion to $3 billion, one of the people familiar with the matter said, but it's unclear whether they're putting up cash or a mix of cash and other resources, such as computing power.

Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi technology investment firm MGX are also in discussions to participate in the funding round.