All the industries OpenAI is trying to disrupt

• Sam Altman is increasingly leading OpenAI into spaces beyond AI research.
• OpenAI is in competition with companies ranging from Google to TikTok.
• OpenAI is also poised for future splashes in healthcare, robotics, and consumer devices.

OpenAI wants to be an everything company, or close to it.

Under CEO Sam Altman's leadership, OpenAI is increasingly going far beyond its roots as an AI research lab.

Altman envisions a future where AI transforms daily life and may one day even replace him as CEO. In the meantime, he's making big bets on where to take the company.

Here are all the industries OpenAI is entering

Search

Google dominates global search.

In 2024, a federal judge concluded that Google held a monopoly as a general search engine.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in June that ChatGPT had progressed beyond being "like a Google replacement" by being capable of handling more complex tasks.

Still, in October, OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT processes a staggering 2.5 billion prompts a day globally.

Alphabet doesn't release daily search data, but it has said that Google received 5 trillion prompts annually, equating to roughly 14 billion daily searches.

It means ChatGPT has a long way to go to surpass the search engine that has become a verb, but it also faces serious competition.

Robots

OpenAI re "very excited about robots," Altman said during a livestream in late October, which outlined his future vision for the company.

It remains unclear to what extent OpenAI will enter the space, especially if it will manufacture robotic hardware itself.

OpenAI was an early investor in Figure AI, but in February, the robotics company pulled out of its partnership with OpenAI. In January, OpenAI filed a lengthy trademark application that hinted at potential plans for humanoid robots.

"The time for the robot is coming soon," Altman said during a chat with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan in June. "I think I am very excited about a world where when you sign up for like the highest tier of the ChatGPT subscription, we send you a free humanoid robot, too."

If OpenAI were to produce its own robots, that would lead them into competition with companies like Tesla. Led by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla unveiled its robot, Optimus, in 2022.

Browser wars

In October, OpenAI opened another front in its battle against Alphabet: web-browsers.

ChatGPT Atlas, OpenAI's web browser, was, as its name indicates, built with the widely popular chatbot at its core.

"We think that AI represents a rare once-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be about," Altman said during the announcement.

Like search, Alphabet dominates web browsing. According to Statcounter, as of October, Google Chrome controlled roughly 73% of the space — its next closest competitor was Apple's Safari at 13%. Alphabet dodged a major bullet when a federal judge decided in September not to require Google Chrome to be spun off.

Like in chatbots, OpenAI is likely to encounter increasing competition in the browser space.

Earlier in October, Perplexity announced its browser, Comet, would be free for everyone. Opera, which dates back decades, has also beefed up its browser with AI capabilities.

Social media

In September, OpenAI entered the social media space with Sora.

A TikTok-esque app, Sora enables users to create AI-generated videos, either of themselves or based on prompts. OpenAI later expanded the potential content to include pets and even objects.

The viral app, which at times led Apple's App Store for free apps, is built on OpenAI's Sora-2 video generation model.

OpenAI has created leaderboards for users who generate the most popular videos or whose linkness is featured the most, underlining how the AI company is building out the app as an entry into the social media space.

Meta was already trying to fend off TikTok through Instagram's Reels feature. The future of TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese-based ByteDance, in the US remains uncertain. In September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would transfer control of the app and its prized algorithm to Americans. As of early November, the deal has not yet been finalized.

Healthcare

Healthcare remains a core focus of OpenAI's future aspirations.

In August, Business Insider reported that OpenAI tapped Nate Gross to lead its health strategy. Gross was the cofounder and former chief strategy officer at Doximity.

Tech companies are increasingly entering the healthcare space. Amazon made one of the biggest splashes in 2022 with the acquisition of OneMedical, a primary care startup, for $3.9 billion.

In outlining OpenAI's future, Altman said that one of the initial focuses of the OpenAI foundation, which is now separate from the company, will be using AI to cure diseases. The foundation pledged $25 billion to that endeavor.

Payments

OpenAI is increasingly adding e-commerce functions to ChatGPT.

In October, OpenAI announced a partnership with PayPal, allowing users to use the payment platform to make purchases in ChatGPT starting in 2026.

OpenAI may have grander plans for the financial space.

Earlier in October, Roi, an investment startup, announced that it had been acquired by OpenAI for an undisclosed sum.

"We started Roi 3 years ago to make investing accessible to everyone by building the most personalized financial experience," Roi CEO Sujith Vishwajith wrote on X, announcing the deal. "Along the way we realized personalization isn't just the future of finance. It's the future of software."

Consumer hardware

Consumer devices might remain the murkiest part of OpenAI's future aspirations.

In May, OpenAI announced its nearly $6.5 billion acquisition of io Products, a company cofounder by legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive. OpenAI also revealed that Altman and Ive had been "quietly" collaborating since 2023.

In October, Ive told Altman during a fireside chat at OpenAI's DevDay conference that he has 15 to 20 ideas for OpenAI devices.

"The challenge is to focus," Ive told Altman onstage. "It would be easy if you knew there are three good ones. It's just not like that. We're designing a family of products. And we're trying to make sure we're judicious and thoughtful in what we focus on and to then not be distracted."

Chipmaking

OpenAI has a ceaseless appetite for more compute.

In October, Altman outlined the $1.4 trillion the company plans to spend in the years ahead for roughly 30 gigawatts of data center capacity. Aspirationally, Altman said OpenAI is considering plans that would potentially allow it to create 1 gigawatt of computing power a week by itself.

OpenAI needs advanced chips to fulfill these needs. In September, OpenAI announced a partnership with Nvidia, whereby Nvidia would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, as each of gigawatt of at least 10 gigawatts of data center capacity is deployed.

Less than a month later, OpenAI announced that it is working with Broadcom, another chipmaker, to build its own chips.

"If you do your own chips, you control your destiny," Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said on a podcast announcing the deal.

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