OpenAI buys TBPN, its first media acquisition
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- OpenAI acquired TBPN — its first media company purchase — with the show set to report to chief political operative Chris Lehane and operate under OpenAI's strategy team.
- TBPN, a daily three-hour live show on YouTube and X, has built a Silicon Valley cult following by hosting tech CEOs including Zuckerberg, Nadella, Benioff, and Altman, and is on track to pull in more than $30 million this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Fidji Simo, OpenAI's head of AGI deployment, said the founders' "amazing comms and marketing instincts" are necessary because "the standard communications playbook just doesn't apply" to OpenAI, and pledged TBPN will retain editorial independence and pick its own guests.
- Chris Lehane, who coined "vast right-wing conspiracy" for the Clinton White House and founded the crypto super PAC Fairshake, has been advising President Trump on AI policy since joining OpenAI in 2024.
- Sam Altman wrote on social media that TBPN is his favorite tech show and that he doesn't "expect them to go any easier on us," saying he'll "help enable that with occasional stupid decisions."
- TBPN frames the deal as a pivot from outside commentary to inside influence — Hays said the founders were won over by OpenAI's "openness to feedback" and want to shape "how this technology is distributed and understood globally."
Why it matters: A media property that built its brand partly by scrutinizing the AI industry now operates under the strategy team of the company it covers, with editorial independence promised but structurally untested. Lehane's political-comms background and White House access make this not just a media buy but a comms-and-policy asset for a company approaching an IPO.
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