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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 executives this month in San Francisco, New York and London, where he and other OpenAI executives pitched artificial intelligence services for enterprise use, in some cases with financial backing. had a head-to-head confrontation Microsoftparticipants told Reuters.
The roadshow-like events illustrate how the company, which has sparked an explosion of generative artificial intelligence through its consumer products, is looking to add new revenue streams from businesses around the world — some of which may come from its largest partners. Home field.
Three meetings with business executives – two in the United States last week and one in London on Monday – had not previously been reported.
Altman spoke directly to more than 100 executives in each city at the event, according to attendees who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At each event, Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap provided product demos, including ChatGPT Enterprise (its famous enterprise-grade chatbot that generates text based on simple prompts), which connects customer applications to its AI services ( called API) software and its new text-to-video model.
OpenAI promises that ChatGPT Enterprise customers’ data will not be used to train its models. In conversations with potential customers in industries such as finance, healthcare and energy, OpenAI executives highlighted a range of applications, such as call center management and translation. They note that more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies are already using consumer versions of their chatbots.
Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest investor, providing access to OpenAI technology through its Azure cloud and selling Microsoft 365 Copilot, a productivity tool powered by OpenAI’s enterprise-focused model.
Attendees said some executives in the event audience asked why they should pay for ChatGPT Enterprise if they were already Microsoft customers.
According to attendees, Altman and Lightcap responded that paying for enterprise services allows them to work directly with the OpenAI team, obtain the latest models, and have greater access to customized AI products.
OpenAI and Microsoft declined to comment.
OpenAI, whose last secondary sale valued it at $86 billion, has been trying to diversify its revenue streams since its chatbot ChatGPT exploded in popularity in late 2022.It’s on track to hit $1 billion in revenue its predicted target By 2024, sources said.
While it tries to build new products for consumers, such as the ChatGPT store, the company expects sales to businesses to become a more meaningful part of its revenue. Lightcap told Bloomberg that more than 600,000 people had signed up to use ChatGPT Enterprise and Team last week, up from about 150,000 in January.
Lightcap is OpenAI’s primary director focused on enterprise adoption, and he also spends time in Hollywood talking to studio executives to promote the company’s Sora film creation tool. The technology, which can create and refine videos based on users’ textual descriptions, has caused excitement and anxiety in the creative industries.
Two major Hollywood studios told Reuters they were seeking early access to begin exploring applications, despite some concerns about the source of the video used to train Sora, the reliability of the output and its ability to protect copyrighted works.
fox and News Corp Altman also hosted Altman at a leadership retreat last October and participated in a question-and-answer session, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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