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The artificial intelligence company OpenAI has just acquired one of the most expensive domains, ‘chat.com’, from the HubSpot founder.
On Wednesday (November 6) the CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman posted “chat.com” on X with a link routing to the company’s AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT.
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 6, 2024
This change in domain comes after it was bought by HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah last year for $15.5 million.
In his initial LinkedIn post sharing the news, Shah said the reason he had bought chat.com was simple: “I think Chat-based UX (#ChatUX) is the next big thing in software. Communicating with computers/software through a natural language interface is much more intuitive. This is made possible by Generative AI.”
The domain is one of the older ones on the web, with it first being registered in September of 1996.
Just two months later, the domain was no longer connected to the entrepreneur as he provided an update writing: “I have sold it for more than I paid.”
At the time, he declined to share who the purchaser was or the paid price but he did suggest people watch a TED talk about how Sal Khan is using OpenAI’s GPT for the Khan Academy.
OpenAI unveiled as acquirer of $15+ million domain chat.com
Since Altman spilled the news himself, Shah has taken to X to say: “Secret acquirer of $15+ million domain chat.com revealed and it’s exactly who you think it is…”
“…I was not at liberty to share who the acquirer was (I was going to leave that to them when they were ready).
“Well, in an 8 character tweet (talk about brevity), Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI revealed that they were the buyer. If you visit the website now, it goes to ChatGPT.”
BREAKING NEWS: Secret acquirer of $15+ million domain chat .com revealed and it's exactly who you'd think.
For those of you that have been following me for a while, you may recall that I announced earlier this year that I had acquired the domain chat .com for an "8 figure sum"… https://t.co/nv1IyddP5z
— dharmesh (@dharmesh) November 6, 2024
Dharmesh then shared a prompt used within GPT o1 to share more details, with the added context being: “When he does sell a domain, it’s almost never at a loss. OpenAI was the perfect home for this domain, do he decided to sell it. He’s known Sam for over a decade since before OpenAI”
After saying he doesn’t like profiting off people he considers friends, the entrepreneur suggests he opted for OpenAI shares instead as he had always wanted them.
“He doesn’t need the cash from a domain sale, he’s doing OK,” writes Dharmesh about his situation.
He then asks the chatbot “How much do you think he sold the chat .com domain for? What percent of that was in shares of OpenAI,” but he doesn’t share the answer.
It’s not known whether the purchase was made entirely through shares or with cash too, as the inner details haven’t been disclosed.
Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram
