OpenAI has accelerated its expansion by announcing a major investment and acquisition of a startup.
On 2nd (local time), Bloomberg reported that OpenAI has acquired the product inspection startup "Statsig" for $1.1 billion (about 1.5 trillion won). While acquiring Statsig, OpenAI also brought in founder and CEO Bijay Raji as the chief technology officer (CTO) of the institutional sector. However, OpenAI's acquisition of Statsig must undergo regulatory review to be confirmed. After the acquisition, Statsig is expected to operate from Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 2021, Statsig has been developing tools that assist software developers in testing and checking new features, and OpenAI was also a client that utilized this tool. Earlier this year, Statsig received a $100 million (about 140 billion won) investment, recognizing its valuation at $1.1 billion.
This year, OpenAI has been pursuing a series of large mergers and acquisitions. In July, it acquired the AI device startup "io" founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive for $6.5 billion (about 9 trillion won), and it attempted to acquire the AI coding startup "Windsurf" for $3 billion (about 4.17 trillion won), which ultimately fell through.
The reason OpenAI has been able to engage in such successive large acquisitions is that the soaring valuation has allowed it to secure substantial investment funds. In March, OpenAI was valued at $300 billion (about 420 trillion won) and received an investment of $40 billion (about 56 trillion won). Recently, it has been discussing a plan that would allow current and former employees to sell their shares based on a valuation of $500 billion (about 700 trillion won).
Meanwhile, with the joining of CTO Raji, there has been a change in OpenAI's executive structure. Kevin Weil, the chief product officer (CPO), will take on the vice presidency in the newly established "AI for Science" team. Srinivasan Narayanan, the engineering vice president, has been appointed as the CTO for client applications. Additionally, Nick Talley, Ashley Alexander, and Ian Silver, who lead the ChatGPT development team and healthcare product development team, as well as the product design team, have been reorganized under CEO Simo's institutional sector.