MW How TBPN went from nerdy online talkshow to splashy OpenAI acquisition
By Hannah Pedone
The less 'antagonistic' tone of TBPN resonated with a Silicon Valley audience. Now the show is going mainstream.
TBPN is now under the OpenAI umbrella.
A niche tech talk show with a religious Silicon Valley fanbase may be gearing up for mass appeal.
The Technology Business Programming Network, beloved by decidedly "online" technology insiders, has been acquired by OpenAI for a figure in the "low hundreds of millions" of dollars, according to the Financial Times. It marks a massive validation moment for a show that was able to score inside access while maintaining the trust of viewers and sources alike.
Taking its current form only about a year ago, the show has gained traction among founders and billionaires, as well as regular tech nerds who simply enjoy listening to three-hour-long daily podcasts.
Fidji Simo, who runs OpenAI's product arm, told staff in a Thursday memo that the company has a "responsibility to help create a space for a real, constructive conversation about the changes AI creates," which is "exactly what TBPN has built."
"So rather than trying to recreate that ourselves, it made a lot of sense to bring them in, support what they're doing and help them scale," she added.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs Jordi Hays and John Coogan in 2024, TBPN, which started with no guests, has since amassed some notable "friends of the show", as the hosts write on their YouTube page. Those insiders include billionaires like Microsoft $(MSFT)$ CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI head Sam Altman, along with venture capitalist Bill Gurley. The show has tackled topics like "Building Hypersonic Jets," with aerospace entrepreneur AJ Piplica, and "Studying Billionaires and Avoiding Their Mistakes," with podcaster David Senra.
Frank Chaparro, a content executive at trading firm GSR and the former host of influential cryptocurrency podcast The Scoop, told MarketWatch that TBPN worked because it introduced a new model for tech media.
"It borrowed from sports broadcasting, highlighting trades, promotions and relationships, and made the industry feel dynamic and entertaining," Chaparro said.
During the show on Thursday, Hays said that over the past few years, "there's been so much uncertainty about AI ... but there's also a lot of fear."
"Just talking through it with the people that are actually helping to diffuse AI through the economy across every single industry" is "exactly what we're going to continue to do," Hays added.
Read more: OpenAI is officially a media company, after buying Silicon Valley's favorite podcast TBPN
Before launching TBPN, Coogan was an entrepreneur in residence at Founders Fund, Peter Thiel's venture firm. He co-founded Soylent, a health-foods company, and Lucy, which makes nontobacco nicotine products. Hays was an angel investor; he founded the fundraising and banking platform Capital, formerly known as Party Round, and the advertising network Branded Native.
The founders' format for the show resonated with listeners and within a year became highly lucrative. TBPN was on course to generate $30 million this year broadly from advertising. That's even as TBPN had just 70,000 viewers across its platforms.
The show grew its fanbase throughout 2025 by deepening its access in the finance and tech worlds. In September, TBPN broadcast live from Meta Platforms' (META) annual developer conference, featuring a sit-down interview with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Then, in December, the New York Stock Exchange $(ICE)$ announced a media partnership with the show, allowing TBPN to amplify coverage of IPOs and other events at the exchange while giving Coogan and Hays close access to executives.
Chaparro said that Coogan and Hays established a tone that "aligned" with the tech industry, as opposed to being "adversarial."
"A lot of people in tech feel traditional media is antagonistic or focused on holding power to account. TBPN served a different role - more inside the tent and more on the same team," he noted.
He said that approach created a "powerful flywheel" for the show. "Content drives engagement, engagement drives product awareness, and product usage reinforces the brand," Chaparro said.
The acquisition has drawn criticism from across the tech world for the risk of betraying editorial independence. Yet in a post on X, Sam Altman wrote: "I don't expect them to go any easier on us, am sure I'll do my part to help enable that with occasional stupid decisions."
The TBPN acquisition comes after OpenAI raised a $122 billion funding round earlier this week, valuing the company at $852 billion postmoney.
See also: OpenAI is now bringing in $2 billion a month - and 3 more highlights from its latest update
-Hannah Pedone
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 03, 2026 18:02 ET (22:02 GMT)
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