OpenAI acquires TBPN, the buzzy founder-led business talk show
Why it matters: OpenAI, an AI lab on the brink of an IPO, now directly controls a media platform that frequently discusses the company and its rivals.
- OpenAI acquired TBPN, a daily live talk show on YouTube and X focusing on tech, business, AI, and defense, making it OpenAI’s first media company acquisition.
- TBPN, hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays, has a cult following in Silicon Valley, attracting top tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, and is projected to earn over $30 million this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- OpenAI’s head of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, stated TBPN will help "bring AI to the world" and leverage the founders' "amazing comms and marketing instincts" for an atypical company where "the standard communications playbook just doesn’t apply."
- TBPN will reportedly maintain editorial independence, choosing its own programming and guests, but will operate under OpenAI’s strategy team and report to Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief political operative, who previously served in the Clinton White House.
OpenAI has acquired TBPN, a popular tech industry talk show known for its candid interviews with top CEOs, marking the AI giant's first media company acquisition. While OpenAI aims to leverage TBPN's marketing prowess to explain AI's impact and promises editorial independence, the move raises questions given TBPN's frequent coverage of OpenAI and its competitors, especially as the show will report to OpenAI's chief political operative, Chris Lehane.
