ChatGPT parent OpenAI is acquiring TBPN, the daily tech and business show that’s becoming a hit in Silicon Valley.
It’s a striking move for OpenAI to venture into the media business. The company will rely on TBPN’s staff for communications and marketing, according to the Wall Street Journal. The show will remain editorially independent, while winding down its advertising business.
Co-hosts Jordi Hayes and John Coogan launched TBPN — “Technology Business Programming Network” — in October 2024 and have been streaming three hours daily, beginning at 11 a.m., since March 2025.
The pair quickly gained a following with their freewheeling brand of tech and business news chat, or as the New York Times once put it: “SportsCenter for the terminally online M.B.A. grad.”
“The world is changing quickly but TBPN will stay the same,” Hays posted Thursday on X as the news broke. Coogan, reiterated that message while relaying how he’s worked for over a decade with OpenAI chief Sam Altman, who funded his first company.
Both Coogan and Hays come from the entrepreneurial ranks; the former co-founded meal replacement company Soylent while the latter co-founded fundraising platform Party Round.
They have landed interviews with major figures in the tech world, including Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Palantir CEO Alex Karp.
“This is a plot twist, I’ll give you that,” Coogan said on Thursday’s show. “It was unexpected to me, but I’m really happy about it.”