Table of Contents
Black Friday may technically be over, but the best streaming deals are still going strong. Over the holiday weekend, we’ll be hard at work bringing you the top Black Friday deals that are still live. And as we approach Cyber Monday, we’ll let you know if any new offers appear.
It’s been a tough year to be a streaming binge-watcher. Almost every major streamer got more expensive in 2025, including Netflix, Peacock, HBO Max, Apple TV+, YouTube TV, Disney+, Hulu, and Paramount+. So, needless to say, we were extra excited about this year’s selection of Black Friday streaming deals. We could all use some discounts, right? The good news is that even with Black Friday itself done and dusted, the deals are still available as we head into Cyber Monday.
The Black Friday sale event is well known as the best time to sign up for streaming services, thanks to serious savings on monthly or annual subscription fees. This year has been no different. If you’re looking for a way to cut back on streaming costs for 2026, there’s still time to take advantage of majorly discounted subscriptions.
SEE ALSO:
Expert-picked early Cyber Monday deals: We found record prices on AirPods, Kindles, Lego, and PS5 consoles
Apple TV+, HBO Max, Disney+, and Hulu have all thrown their hats in the ring with Cyber Monday deals, as have plenty of other streamers via Prime Video add-ons. So you can weigh all of your streaming options for the season. Plus, you still have time to sign up. Most of these offers will be live through Dec. 1.
There are two glaring omissions from this year’s Black Friday streaming offers: Netflix and Peacock. Netflix never offers deals, so this comes as no surprise. Peacock, on the other hand, typically offers one of the best Black Friday streaming deals. It’s extra disappointing, as the streamer had one of the biggest price hikes in 2025. We included a way you can still get a deal on Peacock below, despite its lack of Cyber Week participation.
One thing to note: Most Cyber Monday streaming deals are limited to new and returning subscribers (as in you haven’t been a subscriber in at least a month or so). If you qualify, you can lock in some serious savings on streaming apps.
Best Cyber Monday streaming deal overall
$2.99/month for 12 months (save $8/month)
Why we like it
In a shocking turn of events, the HBO Max Black Friday deal in 2025 actually beats its streaming deal from 2024 and 2023. This year, new and returning subscribers can sign up for 12 months of HBO Max Basic with ads for $2.99 per month through Dec. 1. That’s just $35.88 for the whole year and about 73% in savings. In 2023 and 2024, the streamer only offered this discounted price for six months. So, not only are you getting double the subscription length for a discount, but you’re also saving even more after its recent price hike (up to $10.99/month from $9.99/month).
The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service is one of our favorites. Not only is it home to Warner Bros. films, but also new A24 theatrical releases, a ton of excellent original series (like The Last of Us, The Pitt, and IT: Welcome to Derry), and even live sports via the B/R Sports add-on.
Psst: If you don’t want to deal with logging into another streaming service, this deal is also available in the form of a Prime Video or Hulu add-on.
Best Cyber Monday streaming bundle deal
$4.99/month for 12 months (save $8/month)
Why we like it
While we’re pretty disappointed that Hulu didn’t resurrect its 99 cents deal for 2025, this bundle deal almost makes up for it. Through Dec. 1, new and returning subscribers can score both Disney+ and Hulu with ads for just $4.99 per month for 12 months. Usually $12.99 per month for both, that’s $8 per month in savings or $96 total.
We saw the same bundle drop to only $2.99 during Black Friday 2024, but both streamers raised their prices this year, so the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal has been appropriately adjusted for inflation. And considering each streamer is $11.99 per month on its own, this is an excellent deal. It’s also a good way to lock in a solid price for the year since Disney and Hulu will eventually be merged into a single app — with a higher price tag, no doubt. And hey, maybe we’ll still be surprised with the 99-cent Hulu deal for Cyber Monday.
Best Apple TV+ Cyber Monday deal
$5.99/month for 6 months (save $42)
Why we like it
Apple TV+, just like several other streamers, raised its subscription cost by 30 percent a few months back, from $9.99 to $12.99 per month. So this deal, which knocks the price down to only $5.99 per month for half a year, is much appreciated. You can take advantage of this deal directly at Apple TV+ or in the form of a Prime Video add-on, meaning you need to be a Prime member or Prime Video subscriber.
Apple TV+ features a virtually all-original lineup filled with Emmy-winners like The Studio, Ted Lasso, Severance, and The Morning Show, and Oscar-winners and nominees like CODA and Killers of the Flower Moon. TL;DR: You’ll get more than your money’s worth with this Black Friday deal. Just don’t drag your feet — it’s only around until Cyber Monday on Dec. 1.
Best Cyber Monday live TV streaming deal
Why we like it
Sling’s Day Pass is a solid way to tune into live sports, events, and shows without having to splurge on a full subscription. Sometimes you just want to watch a single game and be on your way. It’s usually $4.99 for a day, but for Black Friday, Sling is offering its Orange Day Pass for only $1 through Dec. 1 at 3 a.m. ET. The Orange package includes ESPN and all its affiliates, TNT, TBS, AMC, IFC, and more. That means you’ll be able to tune into live college football rivalry games on ESPN this weekend — like Georgia Tech vs. Georgia on Friday and Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee and Alabama vs. Auburn on Saturday — for just a buck.
Best Cyber Monday music streaming deal
Free for 4 months (save $11.99/month)
Why we like it
It’s not uncommon to see Amazon offering its music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited, for free during shopping events (this year, you can get three free months). It is, however, quite rare for Spotify to offer its Premium service for free. Through Dec. 31, new subscribers can score four free months of Spotify Premium, no questions asked. Typically $11.99 per month, that saves you nearly $50 total.
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With a Premium account, you can enjoy ad-free listening, collaborate with friends in real time, download music for offline listening, get full control over your music and playlists, unlock 15 hours per month of audiobook time, and finally enjoy lossless audio. You’ll also gain access to the famous Wrapped stats and new weekly listening stats.
Best free streaming deal for Cyber Monday
$49
at Walmart
$98
Save $49
Why we like it
If you already have a Walmart+ membership, or if you were considering signing up to take advantage of the Walmart Black Friday 2025 sale, then you’ll unlock free access to either Peacock or Paramount+ for one year. Even better, Walmart+ memberships are currently 50% off for Black Friday, so you’ll pay just $49 for 12 months of access. On top of these streaming deals, you’ll also get perks like free grocery and pharmacy delivery. If you’re not interested in a Walmart+ membership, we’re still holding out for the standalone Peacock Black Friday deal, but you can already get the Paramount+ Black Friday deal on its own.
Best Cyber Monday streaming deal with no ads
$11.99/year for your first year (save $58)
Why we like it
While most of the best streaming deals are on ad-supported tiers, the Starz $12/year deal is completely ad-free. Usually $69.99 per year, this Cyber Monday deal drops the price down to just $11.99 per year for your first year. That’s $58 in savings. There’s no end date listed for the deal, but we’d suggest signing up ASAP to lock down the savings. Starz is one of the only streamers that regularly offers deals, but this is by far the best we’ve seen. It may not be the most popular streaming service, but it’s packed with plenty of great content, including originals like the historical drama Outlander and the female serial killer tale Sweetpea, and movies like From the World of John Wick: Ballerina and The Long Walk (coming soon).
Best streaming stick deal
Why we like it
There are a lot of Amazon Fire TV Sticks on sale this Black Friday, but the better savings are on the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. Roku beats Amazon’s competing model by $0.99, but it’s also just a better device. When we put the Amazon Fire TV Stick head-to-head with the Roku, the Roku was the clear winner for its easy navigation, brilliant picture quality, and buffer-free streaming. Grab a Roku Streaming Stick Plus for just $19, saving you 52% off this Black Friday.
More Cyber Monday streaming deals
Black Friday Prime Video add-on offers
Black Friday Hulu and Roku add-on offers
Still looking for more deals? See the biggest discounts from Amazon’s epic Black Friday sale. You can also follow the Mashable live blog for the latest Black Friday news, price changes, and stock alerts.
Live
Latest Updates
13 hours ago | November 30, 2025
What do people actually buy on Black Friday? Here are the most-bought items by Mashable readers in 2025
Read more on our readers’ favorite picks here.
13 hours ago | November 30, 2025
It’s not uncommon to see Amazon offering its music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited, for free during shopping events (this year, you can get three free months). It is, however, quite rare for Spotify to offer its Premium service for free. Through Dec. 31, new subscribers can score four free months of Spotify Premium, no questions asked. Typically $11.99 per month, that saves you nearly $50 total.
With a Premium account, you can enjoy ad-free listening, collaborate with friends in real time, download music for offline listening, get full control over your music and playlists, unlock 15 hours per month of audiobook time, and finally enjoy lossless audio. You’ll also gain access to the famous Wrapped stats and new weekly listening stats.
13 hours ago | November 30, 2025
While most of the best streaming deals are on ad-supported tiers, the Starz $12/year deal is completely ad-free. Usually $69.99 per year, this Black Friday deal drops the price down to just $11.99 per year for your first year. That’s $58 in savings. There’s no end date listed for the deal, but we’d suggest signing up ASAP to lock down the savings. Starz is one of the only streamers that regularly offers deals, but this is by far the best we’ve seen. It may not be the most popular streaming service, but it’s packed with plenty of great content, including originals like the historical drama Outlander and the female serial killer tale Sweetpea, and movies like From the World of John Wick: Ballerina and The Long Walk (coming soon).
14 hours ago | November 30, 2025
Sling’s Day Pass is a solid way to tune into live sports, events, and shows without having to splurge on a full subscription. Sometimes you just want to watch a single game and be on your way. It’s usually $4.99 for a day, but for Black Friday, Sling is offering its Orange Day Pass for only $1 through Dec. 1 at 3 a.m. ET. The Orange package includes ESPN and all its affiliates, TNT, TBS, AMC, IFC, and more. That means you’ll be able to tune into live college football rivalry games on ESPN this weekend for just a buck.
16 hours ago | November 30, 2025
Black Friday is dead. Long live Cyber Monday.
We’re fully focused on finding you the best deals left over from Black Friday and early opportunities to snag the best discounts ahead of Cyber Monday. Check out our enormous breakdown of everything on offer in Cyber Monday 2025.
5:22 pm ET | November 29, 2025
If you’re looking for a Netflix Black Friday deal, don’t hold your breath. Netflix never offers deals, so we’re not surprised to see the streamer missing from this list — especially given the buzz around the new season of Stranger Things. Netflix plans now start at $7.99 per month with ads.
1:17 pm ET | November 29, 2025
Whether you want to stress less, sleep better, or have a more mindful 2026, meditation streaming apps can help. We’ve added new offers from meditation apps like Calm and Headspace to this guide.
12:41 pm ET | November 29, 2025
While most of the best streaming deals are for ad-supported tiers, there are a few noteworthy ad-free options. Here are our top picks for ad-free Black Friday streaming deals:
8:48 am ET | November 29, 2025
There are a lot of Amazon Fire TV Sticks on sale this Black Friday but the better savings are on the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. Roku beats Amazon’s competing model by $0.99, but it’s also just a better device. When we put the Amazon Fire TV Stick head-to-head with the Roku, the Roku was the clear winner for its easy navigation, brilliant picture quality, and buffer-free streaming. Grab a Roku Streaming Stick Plus for just $19, saving you 52% off this Black Friday.
7:57 am ET | November 29, 2025
Apple TV+, just like several other streamers, raised its subscription cost by 30 percent a few months back, from $9.99 to $12.99 per month. So this deal, which knocks the price down to only $5.99 per month for half a year, is much appreciated. You can take advantage of this deal directly at Apple TV+ or in the form of a Prime Video add-on, meaning you need to be a Prime member or Prime Video subscriber.
Apple TV+ features a virtually all-original lineup filled with Emmy-winners like The Studio, Ted Lasso, Severance, and The Morning Show, and Oscar-winners and nominees like CODA and Killers of the Flower Moon. TL;DR: You’ll get more than your money’s worth with this Black Friday deal.
7:13 am ET | November 29, 2025
Through Dec. 1, new subscribers can get the Disney+ and Hulu bundle (with ads) for only $4.99 per month for 12 months. Usually $12.99 per month, this Black Friday offer saves you $96 total for the year. If you prefer an ad-free experience, you can score a subscription for $14.99 per month for 12 months, saving you $60 for the year.
5:05 am ET | November 29, 2025
Need something to watch all these shows on? We’ve got you covered.
Samsung may sell the most TVs in the world, but LG’s C Series OLED TVs are certainly the most award-winning TVs in the world. Ever since the C1 OLED debuted in 2021, these OLED TVs have been collecting “Best TV of the year” awards. While the LG G5 Series OLED is now considered the flagship, its high sticker price puts it out of reach for most shoppers.
Our competitors have been writing about a “Black Friday deal” on the C5 for days, but we’ve been holding out. While Best Buy claims you can save $1,300 on this TV by paying $1,399.99, that price has been available at Amazon since October. So, we’ve been holding out in the hopes that this TV would finally get a new price drop on Black Friday, and our patience has been rewarded.
Read more here. Head directly to the deal here.
4:59 am ET | November 29, 2025
3:39 am ET | November 29, 2025
Through Dec. 1, aka Cyber Monday, you can add Fox One to Prime Video for only $9.99 per month for two months. That’s 50% off its usual cost of $19.99 per month for Black Friday.
4:22 pm ET | November 28, 2025
The $5 day pass that Sling TV has offered since August is already a great deal if you don’t have a streaming subscription with live TV. But Sling’s Black Friday deal drops the day price to just $1: From Friday, Nov. 28 through Sunday, Nov. 30, you can pay $1 to access 24 hours of 30+ Sling Orange channels. Catch college football on multiple ESPNs or cozy holiday movies on Freeform, TBS, and TNT.
24 hours of ESPN, Freeform, more for $1
1:25 pm ET | November 28, 2025
Usually, all the big streamers launch a Black Friday promotion, and we’ve seen Disney, Hulu, HBO, and Apple TV do exactly that. But what about Peacock? Alas, we may not get a Peacock deal this year.
Your best bet? Walmart+ memberships are currently 50% off (pay just $49 for the first year), and you can get Peacock for free along with your membership. Alternatively, sign up for the 30-day free trial and pick Peacock as your streaming perk.
11:52 am ET | November 28, 2025
Did you cut the cord? Add Fox One to Prime Video for 50% off and watch NFL Sundays live (plus a ton more content). You can add this streaming service to Prime Video for $9.99 a month.
8:16 am ET | November 28, 2025
Looking for something great to watch at home? Streaming subscribers are spoiled for choice between Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV, Prime Video, Shudder, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. And that’s before you even look at the vast libraries of movies and television programs within each streamer!
Don’t be overwhelmed or waste an hour scrolling through your services to determine what to watch. We’ve got your back, whatever your mood. Mashable offers watch guides for all of the above, broken down by genre: comedy, thriller, horror, documentary, and animation, among others. But if you’re seeking something brand new (or just new to streaming), we’ve got you covered there, too.
Mashable’s entertainment team has scoured the streaming services to highlight the most buzzed-about releases of the week and ranked them from worst to best — or least worth your time to most watchable. Whether you’re looking for heart-warming holiday fun, stranger-than-fiction stories, teen drama, bloody horror, or the return of Stranger Things, check out this guide.
7:47 am ET | November 28, 2025
7:39 am ET | November 28, 2025
For new subscribers, the NFL Sunday Ticket Black Friday deal is $12 per month for the next four months (through the end of the season), or $48 total for the rest of the season pass. Sunday Ticket usually costs $37.50 per month, so you’d be saving $25.50 each month.
7:13 am ET | November 28, 2025
A Walmart+ subscription is available for just $49 this Black Friday and comes with a year’s free subscription to Peacock Premium. That’s a 50% saving on the regular annual cost of a Walmart+ subscription.
6:40 am ET | November 28, 2025
4:51 am ET | November 28, 2025
Through Dec. 1, new subscribers can get the Disney+ and Hulu bundle (with ads) for only $4.99 per month for 12 months. Usually $12.99 per month, this Black Friday offer saves you $96 total for the year. If you prefer an ad-free experience, you can score a subscription for $14.99 per month for 12 months, saving you $60 for the year.
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![OpenAI’s existential questions | TechCrunch
OpenAI has been all over the news recently, whether that news is about acquisitions, competition with Anthropic, or bigger debates about AI’s impact on society.
On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I did our best to round up all the latest OpenAI news. While the company’s latest acquisitions seem to be classic acqui-hires, Sean suggested they also address “two big existential problems that OpenAI is trying to solve right now.”
First, with the team behind personal finance startup Hiro, the company may be hoping to come up with a product that has “more hooks than just a chatbot, and maybe something worth paying more for.” And with new media startup TBPN, OpenAI could be looking to “better shape its image in the public eye, which lately has not been great.”
Read a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity below.
Anthony: [We have] two deals that are worth mentioning, one is that OpenAI acquired this personal finance startup called Hiro. And that comes after another deal that was literally announced when we were recording our last episode of Equity, so we didn’t get to talk about it: OpenAI had also acquired TBPN — a business talk show, like a new media company.
And I think both of these deals are pretty small compared to the scale of OpenAI. These are not things that people expect to really change the course of their business or anything like that, but they’re interesting because it suggests that there’s still this [attitude of,] “Let’s try out different things.”
Especially [with] the TBPN deal […] particularly at this time when it feels like OpenAI, from all the reporting we’re reading, is also trying to really refocus on making ChatGPT and its GPT models really competitive in an enterprise context with programmers.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
Is running a tech talk show, should that really be on the to-do list?
Kirsten: No, this should not be on the to-do list. That’s it.
I do want to mention Hiro because to me, that’s an interesting one, because Julie Bort, our venture editor, super talented, she wrote about this and was I think the first to write about it. She dug in a little bit and basically this looks like an acqui-hire. The company is folding. They basically said, “By this date, you won’t be able to access this anymore.”
This is a personal finance startup. And they only launched two years ago. So this absolutely is about getting talent on board. So I’m very curious to see if OpenAI is going to be just absorbing them into the ether at OpenAI, or if they’re actually interested in some sort of personal finance product that they want to work on. To me, it’s not really clear.
Sean: I think you look at both of these as acqui-hires to a certain extent. I mean, the TBPN acquisition, allegedly they are going to retain their editorial independence on the show that they make every day. And all respect to those guys who’ve put that out there and gotten it off the ground so quickly and grown it into what it has become.
I think any person who follows the media should have a healthy dose of skepticism that when you acquire something like that and you put the people who make the show under the org of the public policy people and comms or marketing adjacent people higher up at the company making the acquisition, that you could have good questions about whether or not saying “editorial independence” is enough. It’s not an incantation that just works.
But you know, what’s interesting to me about these two, while they are similar in their acqui-hire-ness, I think they both represent two major problems that OpenAI is facing.
One is Hiro. OpenAI has a very successful product in ChatGPT. As far as whether or not that will actually ever make them enough money to become a sustainable business that’s not raising the largest private rounds in the world, ever, to keep things going, is a big question. And they also seem to be struggling to keep up on the enterprise side of things where the real money seems to be, so bringing in a team like this seems like taking a shot at, “What else can we do?”
The guy who founded Hiro seems to have a serial entrepreneur streak of creating consumer apps, and so this seems to me like a bet on them being able to come up with something else that may have more hooks than just a chatbot, and maybe something worth paying more for.
And then TBPN is an acquisition made to help better represent what the company does and better shape its image in the public eye, which lately has not been great and certainly is under more questions now than just a few weeks ago, because Ronan Farrow just led a report at The New Yorker that dropped suspiciously right around the time that this and a couple other announcements from OpenAI came out last week.
I think those are two big existential problems that OpenAI is trying to solve right now.
Kirsten: So the thing that you didn’t say is, there’s Anthropic kind of looming in — not in the shadows, I mean, they’re very much taking up a lot of space here — but they’re having a lot of success on the enterprise side of things.
It feels like these guys are competitors and they also feel like very different companies in a lot of ways. Anthony, I’m wondering if you see them as direct competition to OpenAI? Or [are they] just finding their stride in enterprise and in a way, these two companies are clearly going to coexist and they’re really not directly competing with each other — maybe on talent, but not necessarily as we initially thought of them?
Anthony: I think they’re directly competing with each other. There’s definitely a scenario where if AI as an industry, as a technology, is as successful as its proponents hope for, they could both be very successful companies, they could just be the one and two. And the success of one does not necessarily mean that the other will just fade into obscurity.
And again, none of this is official, but there’s just been a lot of reporting around how it seems like OpenAI, more than anyone, is obsessed with and upset about Anthropic’s rise.
Our reporter Lucas [Ropek], he did a great piece over the weekend about the HumanX conference, where he was talking to everyone there and they’re sort of like, “Yeah, ChatGPT is fine, too,” but like they were all about Claude Code. And I think that is exactly what OpenAI is worried about.
Because again, in theory, there could be many other opportunities for generative AI, but it feels like the big growth area, the area where the most money is and where they could at least see a path to having a sustainable business in the future, is in these enterprise and coding tools.
#OpenAIs #existential #questions #TechCrunchAnthropic,Equity podcast,OpenAI](https://i2.wp.com/techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266645295.jpg?w=1024&ssl=1 "OpenAI’s existential questions | TechCrunch
OpenAI has been all over the news recently, whether that news is about acquisitions, competition with Anthropic, or bigger debates about AI’s impact on society.
On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I did our best to round up all the latest OpenAI news. While the company’s latest acquisitions seem to be classic acqui-hires, Sean suggested they also address “two big existential problems that OpenAI is trying to solve right now.”
First, with the team behind personal finance startup Hiro, the company may be hoping to come up with a product that has “more hooks than just a chatbot, and maybe something worth paying more for.” And with new media startup TBPN, OpenAI could be looking to “better shape its image in the public eye, which lately has not been great.”
Read a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity below.
Anthony: [We have] two deals that are worth mentioning, one is that OpenAI acquired this personal finance startup called Hiro. And that comes after another deal that was literally announced when we were recording our last episode of Equity, so we didn’t get to talk about it: OpenAI had also acquired TBPN — a business talk show, like a new media company.
And I think both of these deals are pretty small compared to the scale of OpenAI. These are not things that people expect to really change the course of their business or anything like that, but they’re interesting because it suggests that there’s still this [attitude of,] “Let’s try out different things.”
Especially [with] the TBPN deal […] particularly at this time when it feels like OpenAI, from all the reporting we’re reading, is also trying to really refocus on making ChatGPT and its GPT models really competitive in an enterprise context with programmers.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
Is running a tech talk show, should that really be on the to-do list?
Kirsten: No, this should not be on the to-do list. That’s it.
I do want to mention Hiro because to me, that’s an interesting one, because Julie Bort, our venture editor, super talented, she wrote about this and was I think the first to write about it. She dug in a little bit and basically this looks like an acqui-hire. The company is folding. They basically said, “By this date, you won’t be able to access this anymore.”
This is a personal finance startup. And they only launched two years ago. So this absolutely is about getting talent on board. So I’m very curious to see if OpenAI is going to be just absorbing them into the ether at OpenAI, or if they’re actually interested in some sort of personal finance product that they want to work on. To me, it’s not really clear.
Sean: I think you look at both of these as acqui-hires to a certain extent. I mean, the TBPN acquisition, allegedly they are going to retain their editorial independence on the show that they make every day. And all respect to those guys who’ve put that out there and gotten it off the ground so quickly and grown it into what it has become.
I think any person who follows the media should have a healthy dose of skepticism that when you acquire something like that and you put the people who make the show under the org of the public policy people and comms or marketing adjacent people higher up at the company making the acquisition, that you could have good questions about whether or not saying “editorial independence” is enough. It’s not an incantation that just works.
But you know, what’s interesting to me about these two, while they are similar in their acqui-hire-ness, I think they both represent two major problems that OpenAI is facing.
One is Hiro. OpenAI has a very successful product in ChatGPT. As far as whether or not that will actually ever make them enough money to become a sustainable business that’s not raising the largest private rounds in the world, ever, to keep things going, is a big question. And they also seem to be struggling to keep up on the enterprise side of things where the real money seems to be, so bringing in a team like this seems like taking a shot at, “What else can we do?”
The guy who founded Hiro seems to have a serial entrepreneur streak of creating consumer apps, and so this seems to me like a bet on them being able to come up with something else that may have more hooks than just a chatbot, and maybe something worth paying more for.
And then TBPN is an acquisition made to help better represent what the company does and better shape its image in the public eye, which lately has not been great and certainly is under more questions now than just a few weeks ago, because Ronan Farrow just led a report at The New Yorker that dropped suspiciously right around the time that this and a couple other announcements from OpenAI came out last week.
I think those are two big existential problems that OpenAI is trying to solve right now.
Kirsten: So the thing that you didn’t say is, there’s Anthropic kind of looming in — not in the shadows, I mean, they’re very much taking up a lot of space here — but they’re having a lot of success on the enterprise side of things.
It feels like these guys are competitors and they also feel like very different companies in a lot of ways. Anthony, I’m wondering if you see them as direct competition to OpenAI? Or [are they] just finding their stride in enterprise and in a way, these two companies are clearly going to coexist and they’re really not directly competing with each other — maybe on talent, but not necessarily as we initially thought of them?
Anthony: I think they’re directly competing with each other. There’s definitely a scenario where if AI as an industry, as a technology, is as successful as its proponents hope for, they could both be very successful companies, they could just be the one and two. And the success of one does not necessarily mean that the other will just fade into obscurity.
And again, none of this is official, but there’s just been a lot of reporting around how it seems like OpenAI, more than anyone, is obsessed with and upset about Anthropic’s rise.
Our reporter Lucas [Ropek], he did a great piece over the weekend about the HumanX conference, where he was talking to everyone there and they’re sort of like, “Yeah, ChatGPT is fine, too,” but like they were all about Claude Code. And I think that is exactly what OpenAI is worried about.
Because again, in theory, there could be many other opportunities for generative AI, but it feels like the big growth area, the area where the most money is and where they could at least see a path to having a sustainable business in the future, is in these enterprise and coding tools.
#OpenAIs #existential #questions #TechCrunchAnthropic,Equity podcast,OpenAI")
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