Altman: OpenAI will become a "perpetually low-profit" company, aiming to emulate Stripe

Odaily星球日报讯 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated at Stripe Sessions that OpenAI aspires to be an infrastructure company that is "perpetually low-profit, but massive in scale and fast-growing," offering a product similar to a "smart meter" that anyone can purchase to automate business, develop products, or embed into their own services. He compared OpenAI to Stripe, explaining its usage-based pricing model, where both Stripe and its users benefit as the internet scales up.

Altman revealed that OpenAI has signed 20-year contracts for electricity and land to support this goal. He acknowledged that switching costs for AI are relatively low, and the recent mass migration of users from competing programming tools to Codex demonstrates that the smarter the AI, the easier it is for users to switch platforms. He pointed out that while some companies may try to capture the entire industry chain, OpenAI does not intend to do so, believing that models and data centers form an integrated whole, allowing other companies to build products on top of this foundation.

Altman also emphasized that businesses should not overestimate the impact of AI on existing business structures. While AI is changing 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.