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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 pitched AI services for enterprise use, in some cases with financial backers Microsoftthose present told Reuters.
The roadshow-like events show how the company credited with sparking the genetic AI boom with its consumer offering is looking to develop new sources of revenue from companies around the world — some of them possibly at the home of its biggest partner .
The three meetings with senior corporate executives — two in the US last week and one in London on Monday — have not been previously reported.
Altman directly addressed more than 100 executives in each city at the events, according to attendees who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At each event, Altman and CEO Brad Lightcap offered demonstrations of products, including ChatGPT Enterprise, the enterprise grade of the famous chatbot that generates text from simple prompts, software to connect customer applications to its artificial intelligence services, known as APIs , and his new text – models for video.
OpenAI has promised that the data of ChatGPT Enterprise customers will not be used to train its models. Speaking to potential customers from industries including finance, healthcare and energy, OpenAI executives highlighted a range of applications, including call center management and translation. They noted that the consumer version of the chatbot is already used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies.
Microsoft, the largest investor in OpenAI, offers access to OpenAI technology through the Azure cloud and by selling Microsoft 365 Copilot, a productivity tool powered by OpenAI models aimed at enterprises.
Some executives in the audience at the events asked why they should pay for ChatGPT Enterprise if they are already Microsoft customers, attendees said.
Altman and Lightcap responded that paying for the enterprise service allowed them to work directly with the OpenAI team, have access to the latest models, and more opportunities to get custom AI products, according to attendees.
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 chatbot ChatGPT quickly gained popularity in late 2022. It’s on track to hit $1 billion in revenue goal he projected for 2024, sources said.
While it looks to build new consumer products, such as the ChatGPT marketplace, the company expects sales to businesses to become a more substantial part of its revenue. Lightcap told Bloomberg last week that more than 600,000 people have signed up to use ChatGPT Enterprise and Team, up from about 150,000 in January.
Lightcap, OpenAI’s main focus on enterprise adoption, also spent time in Hollywood talking with studio executives to promote the company’s Sora video creation tool. This technology, which can create and enhance videos based on a user’s text description, has caused excitement and anxiety in the creative industry.
Two major Hollywood studios told Reuters they are seeking early access to begin exploring apps, although there are some concerns about the source of the video used to train Sora, the reliability of the product and its ability to protect projects that are protected by copyright.
Fox and News Corp He also hosted Altman at a leadership meeting last October, where he participated in a question-and-answer session, according to a source with knowledge of the session.