https://stratechery.com/2025/its-openais-world-were-just-living-in-it/ Stratechery by Ben Thompson * By Ben Thompson + About + Email/RSS + @benthompson * Explore + Concepts + Companies + Topics Stratechery Plus Subscribe Log In Learn More Member Forum Stratechery by Ben Thompson Menu Search [ ] Stratechery Plus Subscribe Log In Learn More Member Forum * By Ben Thompson + About + Email/RSS + @benthompson * Explore + Concepts + Companies + Topics * More by Ben Thompson + Updates + Interviews + Year in Review + All Articles Latest Podcast * The MVP Field in 2025, A LeBron Injury and Giannis Weirdness, The Celtics, Knicks and Atlantic Division Picks Greatest Of All Talk | Oct 10 The MVP Field in 2025, A LeBron Injury and Giannis Weirdness, The Celtics, Knicks and Atlantic Division Picks[goat-podca] This Week in Stratechery 2025.41: It's OpenAI's World, We're Just Living in It [openai-windows-2](Stratechery) Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery! As a reminder, each week, every Friday, we're sending out this overview of content in the Stratechery bundle; highlighted links are free for everyone. Additionally, you have complete control over what we send to you. If you don't want to receive This Week in Stratechery emails (there is no podcast), please uncheck the box in your delivery settings. On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week. 1. OpenAI's Windows Strategy. The current touchpoint for platform power is the smartphone, where Apple and Google share a duopoly. A better analogy for OpenAI's ambitions, however, is Microsoft and the way that Windows controlled the PC industry: platform power didn't just come from controlling applications on top of Windows, but the OEM ecosystem underneath. If OpenAI builds AI for everyone, then they are positioned to extract margin from companies up-and-down the stack -- even Nvidia. And, as a necessary bonus, they position themselves to be the primary recipient of all of the speculative investment in AI, thus making the newly promised $1 trillion of infrastructure deals a reality. -- Ben Thompson 2. Sam Altman and Boundless Ambition. This week's Stratechery Interview with Sam Altman was shorter than most (40 minutes) but dense with thought-provoking answers on OpenAI's business, including about 10 different thoughts from Ben and Altman that could have turned into hour-long conversations of their own. Specifically, though, in the midst of daily hand wringing over whether today's AI investing is rational, it was clarifying to hear from the CEO at the center of all the frothiness, as the story of the moment is actually quite simple: Altman sees once-in-a-lifetime opportunities in both the consumer and enterprise spaces ("it's not like you use Google at home and a different company at work"), and given the progress he sees on the research side and where he expects models to be in the near future, OpenAI is placing "company scale" bets today to ensure they have infrastructure ready for tomorrow's demand. Whether those bets pay off, and how, are questions that will occupy the entire tech ecosystem for the next several years. -- Andrew Sharp 3. The Future of Creation. We're one week out from Sora madness, and I enjoyed Ben's Article on Monday comparing the underwhelming reception of MetaAI's Vibes update with the rapturous adoption of Sora. What I found most interesting about Sora is that for the first few days after joining I could not spend more than two minutes in the app before getting sick of the content (one can only handle so many Sam Altman cameos and/or Pikachu movie parodies). By the weekend, though, I'd learned how to make videos starring my dog, Ollie, and then Bill Bishop's dog, and found myself spending far more time in the app and sharing videos with friends. According to Sam Altman, I was not alone ("30-something percent of active users were active creators"). The profound implications of that sort of shift--from AI-enabled consumption to AI-enabled creation--anchor the second half of Ben's analysis on Monday, including questions about the future of creative expression, and perhaps the future of Meta's business. -- AS --------------------------------------------------------------------- Stratechery Articles and Updates * Sora, AI Bicycles, and Meta Disruption -- Sora is going viral, suggesting there is a big opportunity in unlocking creativity. If that's true, that's good for humanity -- and bad for Meta. * OpenAI's Windows Play -- OpenAI is making a play to be the Windows of AI: the all-encompassing platform that controls both hardware supplier and software developers. * An Interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman About DevDay and the AI Buildout -- An interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about the infrastructure buildout, expanding ChatGPT, and the vision that unites it all. * The OpenAI Hype Cycle, Microsoft's Game Pass Failure, Verizon's Satellites -- OpenAI's DevDay evolution mirrors the hype cycle; Microsoft's Game Pass price raise is an admission of failure; and Verizon decides it doesn't want to be under the thumb of SpaceX. Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball's John Gruber * Sora and the AI Value Chain * The Sam Altman Interview Asianometry with Jon Yu * How the Communists Took Afghanistan * A Water Company Debt Crisis in the United Kingdom Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism's Bill Bishop * Official Secrets and a Royal Mess in the UK; Trillion Dollar Rumors in the Trade War; 300,000 Sim Cards in New York and New Jersey Greatest of All Talk with Andrew Sharp and WaPo's Ben Golliver * Searching for 2025's Protagonists, The Highs and Lows of the Mighty Northwest, Career Coaching for Taylor Swift Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson * OpenAI Astride the World, Infrastructure Buildouts and Boundless Ambitions, More on Sora and Creation This week's Stratechery video is on The YouTube Tip of the Google Spear. Share * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get notified about new Articles [ ] Sign Up [ ][ ][ ] [ ][ ][ ] Please verify your email address to proceed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related * 2025.33: Meta and the Benefit of the Doubt Date Friday, August 15, 2025 * 2025.13: YouTubeTV and Big Tech Realities Date Friday, March 28, 2025 * 2025.17: Where Will Apple Be in 2035? Date Friday, April 25, 2025 -OpenAI's Windows Play Search [ ] Stratechery Plus Updates * The OpenAI Hype Cycle, Microsoft's Game Pass Failure, Verizon's Satellites Thursday, October 9, 2025 * An Interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman About DevDay and the AI Buildout Wednesday, October 8, 2025 * An Interview with Ben Bajarin About AI Infrastructure Thursday, October 2, 2025 View All --------------------------------------------------------------------- Stratechery Plus Podcasts * The MVP Field in 2025, A LeBron Injury and Giannis Weirdness, The Celtics, Knicks and Atlantic Division Picks Greatest Of All Talk | Oct 10 The MVP Field in 2025, A LeBron Injury and Giannis Weirdness, The Celtics, Knicks and Atlantic Division Picks[goat-podca] * The Sam Altman Interview Dithering | Oct 10 The Sam Altman Interview[2025-10-Di] * (Preview) OpenAI Astride the World, Infrastructure Buildouts and Boundless Ambitions, More on Sora and Creation Sharp Tech | Oct 10 (Preview) OpenAI Astride the World, Infrastructure Buildouts and Boundless Ambitions, More on Sora and Creation[Sharp] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Stratechery Plus Interviews * An Interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman About DevDay and the AI Buildout Wednesday, October 8, 2025 * An Interview with Ben Bajarin About AI Infrastructure Thursday, October 2, 2025 * An Interview with Booking CEO Glenn Fogel About Travel and Aggregation Thursday, September 25, 2025 View All --------------------------------------------------------------------- More by Ben Thompson Year in Review The most popular and most important posts on Stratechery by year. View All All Articles Explore all free articles on Stratechery. View All All Content Explore all posts on Stratechery. View All Stratechery Plus UpdateS * The OpenAI Hype Cycle, Microsoft's Game Pass Failure, Verizon's Satellites Thursday, October 9, 2025 * An Interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman About DevDay and the AI Buildout Wednesday, October 8, 2025 * An Interview with Ben Bajarin About AI Infrastructure Thursday, October 2, 2025 View All Stratechery Plus Podcasts * The MVP Field in 2025, A LeBron Injury and Giannis Weirdness, The Celtics, Knicks and Atlantic Division Picks Greatest Of All Talk | Oct 10 The MVP Field in 2025, A LeBron Injury and Giannis Weirdness, The Celtics, Knicks and Atlantic Division Picks[goat-podca] * The Sam Altman Interview Dithering | Oct 10 The Sam Altman Interview[2025-10-Di] * (Preview) OpenAI Astride the World, Infrastructure Buildouts and Boundless Ambitions, More on Sora and Creation Sharptech | Oct 10 (Preview) OpenAI Astride the World, Infrastructure Buildouts and Boundless Ambitions, More on Sora and Creation[Sharp] Stratechery Plus Interviews * An Interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman About DevDay and the AI Buildout Wednesday, October 8, 2025 * An Interview with Ben Bajarin About AI Infrastructure Thursday, October 2, 2025 * An Interview with Booking CEO Glenn Fogel About Travel and Aggregation Thursday, September 25, 2025 View All --------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) Stratechery LLC 2025 | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress. 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