Everyone is calling this a media acquisition. They are wrong. OpenAI bought a language. The company paid an undisclosed sum for TBPN, a streaming talk show with 345,000 followers on X and 74,000 YouTube subscribers. On paper, the audience is tiny. In practice, the audience writes the memos, sets the funding terms, and defines what counts as progress in artificial intelligence.
Who Watches TBPN and Why Does That Matter?
TBPN has 345,000 X followers and 74,000 YouTube subscribers, a small but elite Silicon Valley audience
Verified
TBPN launched in October 2024 as the Technology Brothers Podcast. Its co-hosts, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, come from startups. They interview executives. They celebrate funding rounds by banging a gong. Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, and Mark Cuban have appeared on the show. Sam Altman calls it his favorite tech show and has known Coogan for over a decade, since investing in Coogan's first company, Soylent.
The show bills itself as SportsCenter for Silicon Valley. That description flatters both parties. SportsCenter reports on outcomes. TBPN creates the scoreboard.
TBPN was on track to make more than $30 million in 2026 revenue before the acquisition
Verified
TBPN Was on Track for $30 Million in Revenue
Who
Fidji Simo, OpenAI executive who promised editorial independence while describing the deal as part of communications strategy
The Wall Street Journal reported TBPN projected more than $30 million in 2026 revenue. The show had attracted sponsorships from Ramp, Plaid, and Google's Gemini. OpenAI declined to disclose the purchase price. The Financial Times reported a figure in the low tens of millions. A profitable media company bought by a company burning billions on compute. The arithmetic only works if you stop thinking about this as a media transaction.
Fidji Simo Promised Editorial Independence
“This particular move by OpenAI does seem like, 'We're buying a niche publication in part because we like it and we can.' -- Margaret O'Mara, University of Washington
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Create Free AccountOpenAI executive Fidji Simo wrote in the company blog post that TBPN would remain editorially independent. She also described the acquisition as part of OpenAI's communications strategy. She wrote that she could not wait to leverage TBPN staff to innovate on how the company brings AI to the world. Read both sentences again. Now decide which one Simo means more.
The beauty of frame control: you promise independence and announce integration in the same paragraph. Both statements are true. The tension between them is where the real work happens.
At Issue
NBC News poll in March found a majority of American voters believe AI risks outweigh benefits, driving OpenAI's urgency to shape narrative
What Does 'Constructive Conversation' Mean When You Own the Microphone?
Simo said OpenAI wanted to foster a constructive conversation about AI. Margaret O'Mara, a University of Washington professor, told NPR the move looks like an attempt to control the conversation within the highly competitive space of tech insiders. Sara M. Watson, a tech scholar, put it more directly: popular opinion has shifted to say people are skeptical of AI claims.
An NBC News poll in March found a majority of American voters believe AI risks outweigh its benefits. OpenAI staffers have quit over the Pentagon deal. An Anthropic safety researcher left the field to study poetry. The narrative is slipping. TBPN is the grip.
The Playbook Has a Long History
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Learn moreGeneral Electric sponsored a radio and TV show hosted by Ronald Reagan in the 1950s. Microsoft partnered with NBC to launch MSNBC in 1996. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. Marc Benioff owns Time. Andreessen Horowitz launched Future in 2021 as a publication advancing its portfolio's interests. That site folded. The strategy persists.
O'Mara warned that if a journalistic outlet is seen as a company organ, its audience will not take its messaging seriously. She called it a double-edged sword. The Gaslighter calls it a risk that OpenAI has already priced in. The audience that matters does not need to believe TBPN is independent. The audience that matters needs a shared vocabulary. TBPN supplies it.
The Terms Shift Before Anyone Notices
Watch what happens in the next six months. The word safety will shrink. The word capability will expand. Regulation will become governance. Critics will become skeptics. Concerns will become misunderstandings. The transitions will feel organic because they will arrive through friendly interviews and casual banter, not press releases.
Elizabeth Spiers, who co-founded Gawker, told NPR that TBPN's hosts believe most of what Silicon Valley does benefits society and innovation. That is the operating system OpenAI purchased. You do not need to rewrite the code. You just need to ensure it runs on every machine in the room.
OpenAI told its staff to cut side quests. It shut down the Sora video app. It paused an erotic chatbot. Then it bought a talk show. The company that tells employees to focus bought a megaphone. Ask yourself what they plan to say into it. Better yet, ask yourself what questions you will stop asking once they start talking.
