After transitioning partly from a not-for-profit to a for-profit entity, OpenAI has made another significant acquisition, paying $1.1 billion for product testing and experimentation startup Statsig. According to a blog post by OpenAI, Statsig’s experimentation platforms will help it boost its real-time decision-making, feature flagging and A/B testing requirements at OpenAI.
The company’s Indian-origin CEO, Vijaye Raji, will assume the position of Chief Technology Officer, reporting to Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s new CEO of applications.
“Vijaye has a remarkable record of building new consumer and B2B products and systems at scale. He’s joining at a time when our models are opening entirely new ways to build, and his leadership will help turn that progress into safe applications that empower people with many new tools to improve their lives, help companies increase their impact and allow developers to build faster and better products.” Fidji Simo said.
Statsig will continue to remain an independent entity, serving its existing employees. All of Statsig’s employees will be given the option to transition to OpenAI as employees.
OpenAI’s acquisition spree
This acquisition is one of the largest by OpenAI to date, after it scooped up ex-Apple designer Johnny Ive’s AI devices startup IO, for $6.4 billion and analytics database company Rockset last year for an undisclosed amount.
After pioneering generative AI with ChatGPT in 2023, OpenAI is now looking for its next phase of growth. With its signature Large Language Models (LLMs) from the GPT family, OpenAI founder Sam Altman is looking to expand its reach to tools we use every day- aiming to disrupt the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon, eventually. Though there haven’t been any announcements regarding the same, the company‘s $16 billion cash at hand allows it to buy any company that can help meet its requirements.
