“OpenAI isn’t satisfied with being the top chatbot. It’s making a play for total tech supremacy, one platform at a time.”
“Tuesday’s launch of OpenAI’s new browser — Atlas — is a fast follow to the company’s Sora social media app, app store-like developer tools, commerce plays, plus rumors of future hardware devices with still-unknown form factors.”
“The big picture: OpenAI doesn’t just want ChatGPT to be the everything app. It wants to be the everything company and knock all of its competitors aside.”
It then goes on to count the ways, in a simple array of categories: Starting of course with Atlas, which is getting its deserved set of attention:
“1. It’s a web browser”
“OpenAI’s new browser is another swipe at Google, which has struggled to keep pace since ChatGPT’s debut.”
“Atlas is essentially an insertion of the world’s most popular chatbot into a browser experience.”
“like Perplexity’s Comet, Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge.”
“It remains to be seen whether browsing with a chatbot is a killer use case.”
“If it becomes one, ChatGPT’s popularity could lure Chrome and Edge devotees to Atlas.”
Next of course is its AI video Sora 2 app, which remains top of the charts for now:
“2. “It’s a social media network”
“OpenAI’s Sora not only upended reality on the web, it also became the first real competitor to Meta’s social media dominance since TikTok.”
“The invite-only app rocketed to — and stayed at — the top of Apple’s download charts.”
“OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promised to include features that would keep users from infinitely scrolling until their brain rotted, but the app’s already got early adopters hooked.”
“At OpenAI’s developer day in early October, the company gave developers a way to offer their apps directly within ChatGPT, so users could summon Spotify, Zillow, Figma, Canva and others directly from the chatbot.”
“Developers can already submit their own apps, with monetization coming soon, putting OpenAI in direct competition with Apple’s and Google’s app stores.”
“Reports of OpenAI’s hardware partnership with former Apple designer Jony Ive have been percolating for over a year.”
“The company paid $5 billion in stock for Ive’s startup in May, including the acquisition of Ive and three other veteran Apple designers.”
“OpenAI’s poaching continued with recruits from Apple’s design, manufacturing and supply chain teams. In September, OpenAI began talks with Apple’s third-party suppliers themselves.”
“The company is reportedly working on a smart speaker without a display, smart glasses, a digital voice recorder and a wearable pin, targeted for a late 2026 or early 2027 release, according to a report from The Information.”
“What we’re watching: OpenAI’s land grab could invite the same kind of antitrust nightmares that have dogged Microsoft and Google.”
“The company’s growing control over models, distribution platforms and hardware will likely make it harder for rivals and startups to compete on fair terms.”
“There’s also the small matter of cost — all these ventures are expensive, and OpenAI’s already on the hook to spend $1 trillion over the next five years, against about $13 billion in annual revenue.”
“The bottom line: Expect to see ChatGPT in more facets of your life sooner than later.”
Sum it all up, and we’re seeing an extraordinary series of executions in any tech wave, much less this AI Tech Wave.
And its a set of accomplishments by OpenAI founder/CEO Sam Altman and his team only a thousand plus some days after launching ChatGPT on 11/20/22, that bears noting. It’s all just beginning. Stay tuned.
(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)
View the video of this post here. __ This week’s post is sponsored by YCharts. I’m doing a big live show with them this week on January 25 @ 2pm EST....
