OpenAI acquires a media company for the first time, purchasing the tech live streaming show TBPN

According to 1M AI News monitoring, OpenAI app business CEO Fidji Simo announced in an internal memo that it is acquiring the tech livestream program TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network). The deal value was not disclosed. This is OpenAI’s first acquisition of a media company.

TBPN was co-founded and hosted by serial entrepreneurs Jordi Hays and John Coogan, livestreaming on platforms such as YouTube and X every weekday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The programming covers technology, business, AI, and defense. It has interviewed Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Mark Cuban, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and was called “Silicon Valley’s newest obsession” by The New York Times. CNBC reported that TBPN’s 2025 ad revenue was about $5 million, and that this year it is expected to exceed $30 million.

In the memo, Simo said that the technological changes OpenAI is undergoing mean that “standard corporate communications strategies simply don’t apply,” and that TBPN is exactly what she was looking for: a daily space for real conversations around AI and builders. After the acquisition, TBPN will retain editorial independence and independently decide on show content, topics, and guests—this point is written into the agreement. The program will fall under OpenAI’s strategic department and report to Chris Lehane, Vice President of Global Affairs. Simo also said it plans to apply TBPN’s communications and marketing capabilities to promote OpenAI products beyond the show.

In a statement, TBPN co-founder Hays said, “Over the past year, what we sat in the front row observing wasn’t just OpenAI, but the entire ecosystem. Even though we sometimes criticize this industry, after learning more about Sam and the OpenAI team, what moved us most was their openness to feedback. Becoming from commentators into people who truly shape how this technology is distributed and understood is crucial to us.”

On X, Sam Altman wrote that “TBPN is my favorite tech show,” and said he doesn’t expect them to go easy on OpenAI: “I’m sure the dumb things I occasionally do will provide material for it.” Coogan, meanwhile, recalled his relationship with Altman spanning more than a decade. In 2013, Altman invested in his first company (the meal-replacement brand Soylent). Later, when Coogan brought his second company to YC, Altman was serving as YC president. After that, Coogan joined Peter Thiel’s venture capital fund Founders Fund, and the first deal he handled was OpenAI’s funding round at the end of 2022, following the release of ChatGPT. When TBPN got started last year, Altman was the first head of the AI lab to appear on the show.

Within three weeks, OpenAI acquired two companies in succession (on March 19, it announced the acquisition of the Python code quality tool Astral). Moving from developer tools into the media space, at a time when an IPO is approaching and AI public sentiment remains unclear, OpenAI has chosen to hold the microphone itself.