OpenAI has acquired popular tech industry talk show TBPN \u2014 Technology Business Programming Network \u2014 making this the AI giant\u2019s first acquisition of a media company. The show will report to OpenAI\u2019s chief political operative, Chris Lehane.<\/p>\n
TBPN, hosted by former tech founders John Coogan and Jordi Hays, is a daily live show that airs on YouTube and X for three hours, focusing on tech, business, AI, and defense. <\/p>\n
The show has gained a cult following in Silicon Valley, a safe space where industry power players can speak candidly and be questioned by fellow insiders. The show has a reputation for being something of a Sports Center for the tech industry \u2014 a place where top tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Marc Benioff, and, yes, Sam Altman, come to chop it up, react to the news of the day, and occasionally make some of their own.<\/p>\n
TBPN will continue to live on as its own brand, which OpenAI will help scale. Not that it necessarily needed help on that front; TBPN has grown into an empire that\u2019s on track to pull in more than $30 million this year, according to The Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n OpenAI already has its own podcast<\/a> for long-form conversations with the people building tech at the company.<\/p>\n OpenAI will also tap the founders\u2019 \u201camazing comms and marketing instincts\u201d outside the show, according to OpenAI\u2019s head of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, who said TBPN will \u201cbring AI to the world in a way that helps people understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Simo went even further, noting that TBPN\u2019s prowess is necessary for an atypical company like OpenAI where \u201cthe standard communications playbook just doesn\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA She said TBPN will have editorial independence and continue to \u201crun their programming, choose their guests, and make their own editorial decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the acquisition might give some pause. After all, OpenAI is a valuable AI lab on the brink of an IPO buying a buzzy talk show that often discusses the company and its competitors. And once the deal closes, TBPN will operate under OpenAI\u2019s strategy team and report to Chris Lehane<\/a>, the man who invented the phrase \u201cvast right-wing conspiracy\u201d as a tool to deflect press scrutiny of the Clinton White House.<\/p>\n Lehane, who has been described as a master of the \u201cpolitical dark arts,\u201d is also behind the crypto industry super PAC Fairshake, which spent hundreds of millions to kneecap anti-crypto candidates in the 2024 election. He joined OpenAI that same year and has been in President Trump\u2019s ear ever since, whispering recommendations for sweeping and controversial policies like preventing states from regulating AI<\/a> and easing environmental restrictions<\/a> that might slow data center construction.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n