OpenAI has purchased TBPN, the viral online talk show that often interviews AI executives and other tech leaders. The show – which goes live every weekday, often for a three-hour duration – considers channels like Bloomberg and CNBC as its competition and counts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as well as executives from Meta, Microsoft, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz, among its past guests.
TBPN’s livestream is primarily available on X and YouTube, but many users watch it on X. OpenAI’s purchase comes as a lawsuit between Altman and Elon Musk, who was a co-founder of OpenAI before splitting from the project and now owns X, is headed to trial later this month.
TBPN host John Coogan wrote on X, “This is a full circle moment for me as I’ve worked with [Altman] for well over a decade. He funded my first company in 2013,” and the show started today’s live broadcast by focusing on the acquisition.
TBPN averages about 70,000 viewers per episode, and it generated more than $5 million in advertising revenue this year, with projections to draw in more than $30 million in 2026 revenue, according to The Wall Street Journal.
OpenAI’s reasoning for purchasing the show involved “accelerating the global conversation around AI,” according to a memo sent around the company Thursday by Fidji Simo, its CEO of AGI deployment. Simo writes, “As I’ve been thinking about the future of how we communicate at OpenAI, one thing that’s become clear is that the standard communications playbook just doesn’t apply to us … With the mission of bringing AGI to the world comes a responsibility to help create a space for a real, constructive conversation about the changes AI creates—with builders and people using the technology at the center.”
The TBPN team will help with OpenAI’s corporate comms and marketing, but Simo writes that it will retain “editorial independence” with regards to running programming and choosing guests.
