OpenAI Acquires TBPN: (yes the tech news podcast)

0:00OpenAI has just acquired the popular tech show TBPN, the Technology Business Programming Network. This is OpenAI's first big move into owning a media company, but this isn't a classic media company, right? They're not buying the New York Times or, you know, the Wall Street Journal or something. They're buying kind of one of these up-and-coming tech shows that, for, you know, full disclosure, this thing started in 2025. So this has not been around. It's only been around for 18 months, and they have now been acquired. Today on the podcast, I want to break down how much we are speculating they've been acquired for, what people have been saying about it over on X, and all of the juicy details, basically, in an acquisition of a kind of first media company acquisition by OpenAI, why they might be doing this pre-IPO and where we see this going in the future.

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1:20So if you want to try all that out, it's in the link in the description to AIbox.ai. All right, let's get into the episode. So what's interesting here is OpenAI has just acquired tbpn and the basically when they bought this a lot of people were worried they're like oh no like open ai is just buying this media company they're going to tell them what to do it's going to change the direction um apparently the show is going to report directly to open ai's chief political operator which is chris legan and i think this is not really a content play it's kind of a communications expansion um the hosts which were some former tech founders john coogan and jordy hayes it basically built its reputation on it would they would do these like daily three hour they would do.

2:00They still do these daily three-hour live format kind of streams. They stream on X and YouTube, and they basically do deep dives into tech, business, AI, and they also do defense. And oftentimes, they're kind of reacting in real time to things that are happening. So, right, they're doing the live stream, something happens on X, and they're kind of talking about it. They also layer some of their insider perspectives that I think you don't typically get from a lot of traditional media because they were founders, and they've actually been working in the space. And over the past year, they basically evolved into there's this kind of this cult following in Silicon Valley.

2:31It's a lot of different founders and operators and executives, they will come there and they'll basically like, I don't know, they speak pretty candidly, they challenge each other. And sometimes they they're, you know, they're saying like the quiet part out loud, basically on the show. I think that's what a lot of people like about it. Now, I think it has earned comparisons to kind of like SportsCenter, but it's for tech. And you see people like Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Mark Benioff, Sam Altman, all of them have come on the show before. And they're kind of breaking down some of the headlines, right?

3:00Some of the, you know, some crazy thing happens with OpenAI, you have Sam Altman on there. And I think it's interesting because you get their perspective as their tech founders grilling, not really grilling, right? It's not really very combative, I think, which is another thing that people actually like about it, but they're asking them about what's going on. Despite the acquisition, though, because some people are like, oh, no, OpenAI is buying them, they're going to tell them what to say, apparently TBPN is going to continue to operate under its own brand, so at least publicly, and then it's going to have OpenAI stepping in to help them scale the distribution.

3:29So it's, you know, it's still its own company, but OpenAI probably is going to throw ads at it to help it grow and do a bunch of other things for kind of its reach and production. And I mean, not that it, you know, some people are like, well, it doesn't really need it. It's kind of organically growing. And yes, but like, for example, if you go search for the AI chat podcast, my podcast on Google, right above it you're going to see an ad for um nvidia's like ai podcast so you can there's a lot you can do to grow uh nvidia obviously is growing their podcast by putting ads on top of my show and i mean we all you know i'm sure that i get i get uh listens from people looking for their ai show finding my show so you know it's all an ecosystem for sure but there's a lot of ways you can grow and i can only imagine with open ai's funding how fast and big they could grow that brand to be basically like a full-scale media company.

4:20According to the Wall Street Journal, they were already on pace to generate more than$30 million in revenue this year. Apparently, they did$5 million last year from advertisers, ad revenue on the platform. They have a bunch of sponsorships, they have some distribution. And I think right now, OpenAI is, you know, they have a lot of different content efforts. They're trying their own podcast, which is kind of focused on long-form conversations. They're bringing a bunch of builders inside their company to come talk on that. So I think, you know, OpenAI is getting their own podcast started and they're thinking, look, maybe this is a good next move.

4:52I think it is a little bit different though because, you know, TVPN, this is, it's very loud. It's very fast. It's very embedded into the day-to-day tech, right? I mean, like three-hour live stream every single day. A lot of people watch this. OpenAI right now is planning to kind of go beyond just owning the show. They're also going to tap the founders, what they said, their, quote, amazing comms and marketing instincts. So I think beyond just like, hey, we want to get like this kind of YouTube channel that does AI news, they want to grab those founders and they want to get their communications and their communications instincts.

5:25According to Fiji Simo, who is leading this, she kind of emphasized that they're going to bring, quote, AI to the world in a way that helps people understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives. I think she's basically positioning the show as kind of like a bridge between some of the complex AI systems and then kind of helping your average person understand what's going on. Because that's kind of what the company's been doing. And I think OpenAI knows that that is a sweet spot where their messaging needs to really thrive. So Simo like kind of was diving into that. And she basically pointed out that TBPN style is really uniquely suited for a company like OpenAI, where, quote, the standard communications playbook just doesn't apply.

6:03So I think like if you kind of read between the lines there, basically they're saying traditional PR isn't enough for open AI. It's, you know, one of these really consequential technologies shaping what's happening. And so they said, look, like this is kind of what we need to help us get our message out there. But what they're trying to say, because I guess a lot of people were kind of worried about the editorial, quote unquote, independence of the company. They said that their team is still going to have, quote, is going to, quote, run their program, choose their guests and make their own editorial decisions.

6:35So even if OpenAI owns them, they're allowed to say whatever they want. And I was actually reading some tweets by the founders and they were like, look, sometimes we've been critical of OpenAI and we hope to still be critical of them and other people in the future. But really, I think what they're trying to do or what they said they're interested in is helping to shape some of the decisions that are being made inside of the company. I think they know they get a bit more of a seat at the table. If they have the microphone, they're working inside of OpenAI. They're getting feedback from people. I think this is something that, you know, they're hoping that they can make a bigger impact in the AI industry.

7:09I think once all this is finalized, TBPN is going to sit under OpenAI's strategy team. They're going to report to Lian, who's a longtime political strategist. He's kind of known for coining the phrase vast right wing conspiracy during his time in the Clinton White House. And he's often described as a practitioner of the, quote, political dark arts. That's from a that's from a quote from TechCrunch, which is pretty funny. But Lehman also played a big role in shaping a lot of the different political narratives inside of Washington. He was really instrumental behind a lot of the crypto industry, Super PAC, Fairshake, which spent really, really heavily in the 2024 election cycle to basically counter a lot of the anti-crypto candidates.

7:47Since he joined OpenAI, he's also been reportedly very active in policy circles. He's advising Donald Trump on some AI-related issues from kind of limiting state-level AI regulation to easing environmental constraints around data center expansion. so I think for you know all it's concerned as far as open AI or Sam Altman goes he doesn't seem very concerned about the optics I think he did a social post and he called tbpn his favorite tech show and he made it clear that he expects the tone to remain unchanged so he said uh quote I don't expect them to go any easier on us I'm sure I'll do my part to help enable that with occasional stupid decisions haha very funny Sam um I think that their founders right now are kind of seeing this as a bit of a chance to stay, you know, step kind of beyond commentary into some real influence.

8:33They said, this is a quote from them, they said, well, we've been critical of the industry at times after getting to know Sam and the OpenAI team, what stood out to what stood out most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right. Moving from commentary to real impact and how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us. I think that framing kind of gets to the core of the deal, right? It isn't just OpenAI buying the show. I think OpenAI is buying the distribution and maybe some of the narrative control and kind of a direct line into the daily conversations that are shaping tech.

9:04They know this is a daily show that a lot of people in tech watch. And so they feel like this is a good way for them to kind of get embedded in that and also to get feedback and information out of it. So I think there's a lot of a lot of synergy there. It's fascinating to see this is, you know, a company that's getting acquired. And Sam Allman has been on the show multiple times. So evidently, he's made good relationships with these folks. So this is really, really fascinating. All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning into the podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and this breakdown, make sure to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcast.

9:32I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this deal. If we get enough reviews, perhaps OpenAI will be acquiring this podcast next. I'll keep you guys up to date on all of that. Hope you all have a fantastic rest of your day. And as always, make sure to go check out AIbox.ai if you want to get access to over 80 of the top models in one place for$8.99 a month. Link is in the description. I'll see you guys in the next episode.