Crystal Hu and Don Chmielewski
(Reuters) – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 executives in San Francisco, New York and London this month, where he and other OpenAI executives introduced artificial intelligence services for enterprise use, in some cases facing off to face the financial sponsor. Microsoft (NASDAQ:), participants told Reuters.
The roadshow-like events illustrate how the company, credited with the explosive growth of generative artificial intelligence in its consumer offering, is seeking new sources of revenue from corporations around the world – some of them potentially in the territory of its largest partner. .
The three meetings with senior corporate executives – two in the US last week and one in London on Monday – had not previously been reported.
Altman directly addressed more than 100 leaders in each city at the events, according to participants who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At each event, Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap showcased products including ChatGPT Enterprise, an enterprise level of its famous chatbot that generates text from simple prompts, software for connecting client applications to its artificial intelligence services, known as APIs. and his new text. -models for video.
OpenAI has promised that ChatGPT Enterprise customer data will not be used to train its models. Speaking to potential clients in industries such as finance, healthcare and energy, OpenAI executives highlighted a number of applications such as call center management and translation. They noted that the consumer version of their chatbot is already used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies.
Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, offers access to OpenAI technology through its Azure cloud and sells Microsoft 365 Copilot, a productivity tool based on OpenAI models aimed at enterprises.
According to participants, some executives attending the events asked why they should pay for ChatGPT Enterprise if they are already Microsoft customers.
Altman and Lightcap responded that paying for an enterprise service allows them to work directly with the OpenAI team, have access to the latest models, and have more options for customized AI products, according to participants present.
OpenAI and Microsoft declined to comment.
OpenAI, last valued at $86 billion in a secondary sale, has been trying to diversify its revenue stream since its chatbot ChatGPT quickly gained popularity in late 2022. The company is on track to hit its $1 billion revenue target for 2024, sources said. .
As it looks to create new consumer products, such as ChatGPT marketplace stores, the company expects sales to businesses to become a more significant part of its revenue. Lightcap told Bloomberg that more than 600,000 people signed up to use ChatGPT Enterprise and Team last week, up from 150,000 in January.
Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief enterprise implementation officer, also spent time in Hollywood networking with studio executives to promote the company’s video creation tool Sora. This technology, which allows videos to be created and enhanced based on a user’s text description, has caused both excitement and concern in the creative industry.
Two major Hollywood studios told Reuters they are seeking early access to begin exploring the apps, although there are 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 (NASDAQ:) also hosted Altman at an executive retreat last October, where he took part in a question-and-answer session, according to one source familiar with the meeting.