Altman: OpenAI to Operate as "Permanently Low-Profit" Company, Aiming to Follow Stripe's Model
Odaily OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated at Stripe Sessions that OpenAI aspires to become an infrastructure company that is "permanently low-profit, yet massive and fast-growing," offering products akin to "smart meters" that allow anyone to purchase them to automate businesses, develop products, or embed them into their own services. He compared OpenAI to Stripe, noting that their model is usage-based billing, and as the internet scales, both Stripe and its users benefit.Altman revealed that OpenAI has already signed 20-year contracts for electricity and land to support this goal. He acknowledged that switching costs in AI are low, and the recent massive influx of users from competing programming tools to Codex proves that the smarter AI becomes, the easier it is to switch platforms. He pointed out that while some companies might try to capture the entire industry chain, OpenAI does not plan to do so, believing that models and data centers are a whole, and other companies can build products on top of them.Altman also emphasized that businesses should not overestimate AI's impact on existing business structures. Although AI has changed many existing processes, good products will still survive in the market. He specifically mentioned that Shopify CEO Toby Lütke is the best AI adopter he has ever seen.