Sam Altman: OpenAI aims to be a "permanently low-margin" large-scale infrastructure, high profits are simply unrealistic

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated at the Stripe Sessions conference that OpenAI aims to become an "always low-margin, but massive-scale" infrastructure company, providing an "intelligence dashboard" that allows anyone to purchase AI capabilities on a usage basis. He admitted that the switching costs for AI are very low, noting that users can "move by just saying one sentence to an agent," making high margins unrealistic under this industry structure. (Previous coverage: Musk once demanded 51.2% stake, offered SpaceX as payment — OpenAI founding emails fully exposed) (Background: AI makes you feel you no longer need junior engineers, but stopping hiring will give away company control) It is rare for a model provider to publicly admit that their product has a thin moat. But it actually makes a lot of sense. During a fireside chat at Stripe Sessions on the 29th, Sam Altman positioned OpenAI as the AI version of Stripe: it charges by usage, and the larger the network, the more profitable the platform, and the happier the users. What he wants to do is sell "usable intelligence" that anyone can buy to automate businesses, develop products, or embed directly into their own services. OpenAI has currently signed 20-year power and land contracts for its expenditures, signaling a long-term strategic layout. Low switching costs are exactly what Sam Altman wants. Altman openly admitted that AI switching costs are low. He said that users have recently flocked to Codex from competing programming tools (currently with over 3 million weekly active users), but the smarter the AI, the easier it is to switch platforms: "You can move by just saying one sentence to an agent." In this industry structure, high margins are inherently unrealistic, so it is better to proactively embrace "always thin margins" and win through scale and growth speed. Stripe co-founder Collison asked: What is your take on "AI companies swallowing the entire value chain"? Sam Altman said some companies do want to do that, but OpenAI does not. He views data centers, models, and harness (the middle layer for scheduling and orchestrating AI) as a holistic output, providing "usable intelligence" upon which other companies build products; the smarter the model, the more the customers benefit. Under this architecture, OpenAI does not need high profit margins because it is not selling products; it is selling utilities. Companies that implicitly hope models don't improve will be eliminated sooner or later. Sam Altman used one sentence to judge the standard for future companies: "If a company secretly hopes that models don't improve, it means it is compensating for the model's shortcomings (profiting from what the model cannot do), and the next model upgrade will sooner or later eliminate such companies." He also advised enterprises not to overestimate the impact of AI on existing business structures. While agents do need to handle payments, money will ultimately flow through some channel, and companies that build good products will not disappear just because of AI. "The world has gone a bit crazy about this." Finally, he named Shopify CEO Toby Lütke as the best AI adopter he has ever seen, including doing it himself and pushing his team to keep up, without engaging in gimmicks like token leaderboards. It’s just one phrase: "Use AI for all business." The mention of token usage leaderboards sounded like a jab at certain large companies.

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