OpenAI Acquires TBPN: (yes the tech news podcast)

OpenAI has just acquired the popular tech show TBP and 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 I had 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.

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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All right, let's get into the episode.

So what's interesting here is OpenAI has just acquired TBPN, and basically when they

bought this, a lot of people were worried they were like, oh no, OpenAI has just binded

this media company.

They're going to tell them what to do.

It's going to change the direction.

Apparently, the show is going to report directly to OpenAI's chief political operator,

which is Chris Legen.

I think this is not really a content play.

It's kind of a communications expansion.

The hosts, which were some former tech founders, John Cougan and Jordy Hayes, it basically

built its reputation on.

They would do these like daily three hour, they would do.

They 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 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 this space.

And over the past year, they basically evolved into, there's this kind of this cult following

in Silicon Valley.

It'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're saying 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 sport center, 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.

Some crazy thing happens with Open AI, you have Sam Altman on there.

And I think it's interesting because you get their perspective as their tech founders

who grilling, not really grilling, right?

It's not like 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, Open AI 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 Open AI stepping into help them scale the distribution.

So it's still its own company, but Open AI 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 NVIDIA's like AI podcast.

So you can, there's a lot you can do to grow 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 a listens from people looking

for their AI show, finding my show.

So you know, it's, 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.

According 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, you know,

advertisers, ad revenue on the platform, they have a bunch of sponsorships, they have

some distribution.

And I think right now, Open AI is, you know, they have a lot of different content efforts.

They're trying their own podcast, which is kind of focused on long, long form conversations,

they're bringing a bunch of builders inside their company to come talk on that.

So I think, you know, Open AI is getting their own podcast started and they're thinking,

look, maybe this is a good, a good next move.

I think it is a little bit different though because, you know, TBPN, 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.

Open AI right now is planning to kind of go beyond just owning the show.

They're also going to tap the founders, what they said, they're 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.

They're going 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 position the show is 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 Open AI knows that that is a sweet spot where their messaging needs to really

thrive.

Simo like kind of was diving into that and she basically pointed out that TBPN style

is really uniquely suited for company like Open AI, where quote, the standard communications

playbook just doesn't apply.

So I think like if you kind of a read between the lines, they're 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 to help us get our message

out there.

They're trying to say it 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.

So even if Open AI 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 Open AI and we hope to still be critical of them and other people

in the in the future.

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 Open AI, 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.

I think once all this is finalized, TBPN is going to sit under Open AI strategy team.

They're going to report to Lee and who's a long time political strategist.

He's kind of known for pointing the phrase vast, right wing conspiracy during his time

in the Clinton Lighthouse.

And he's often described as a practitioner of the quote, political dark arts.

That's from a, that's from a quote from TechCrunchers 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 fair shake,

which spent really, really heavily in the 2024 election cycle to basically counter a lot

of the anti crypto candidates.

Since he joined Open AI, 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 easy environmental constraints around data center expansion.

So I think for, you know, all'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, 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.

Ha ha, very funny, Sam.

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.

They 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 Open AI 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 opening, I bind the show, I think opening eyes, buying the distribution

and maybe some of the narrative control and kind of a direct line into the daily conversations

that are shaping tech.

They 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 a company that's getting acquired and Sam Alman 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 a review wherever

you get your podcasts.

I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this deal.

If we get enough reviews, perhaps Open AI 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 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 899 a month, links in the description.

I'll see you guys in the next episode.