OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company doesn’t have a set roadmap, but it hopes to build something akin to a subscription-based operating system for AI. Speaking at AI Ascent 2025, an event hosted by venture capital firm Sequoia in early May, Altman described a broad ambition: to power every AI experience in your life.
During a Q&A session, a participant asked how startups could avoid competing directly with OpenAI. Altman responded, “We want to be the primary subscription to AI for people.” He added that while the approach may resemble aspects of ChatGPT, the company’s main focus is on developing increasingly smarter models. These would be supported by new kinds of platforms—what he referred to as “future devices” and “future things that are like operating systems.”
Altman didn’t offer many specifics. “We haven’t decided yet whether it’s an API or an SDK or whatever you want to call it… It’s going to be our platform,” he said. Still, he expressed confidence, noting, “It may take us a few tries, but we’ll get there.”
Toward a Personalized AI Experience
Altman hopes whatever OpenAI builds will generate significant value—not just for the company, but for developers and users as well. “There are a ton of things that can be built” around OpenAI’s offerings, he noted.
When asked whether OpenAI plans to create custom AI models, Altman described his ideal: a reasoning model with “a trillion tokens of context that you’ve been putting in your entire life.” This model would potentially remember every conversation, book, email, and web page a user has interacted with. “Everything you’ve ever looked at is in there, plus all your data from other sources. And you know, your life just keeps adding context.”
Still, he acknowledged this is more a “Platonic ideal” than an immediate reality. “We can’t build that now,” he said, but added, “Everything else is a compromise with that Platonic ideal.”
Focused on What’s Next
Altman admitted there is no master plan for spending the substantial funding OpenAI is seeking. “We’re going to try to make great models and make great products,” he said. Grand strategies, in his view, don’t work because entrepreneurs must reverse-engineer from highly complex problems.
Instead, OpenAI is focused on the next steps: building core AI infrastructure, continuously improving models, and developing top-tier consumer-facing products, adds NIX Solutions. “We pride ourselves on being able to be nimble and adjust our tactics as the world changes,” Altman said.
As for future releases? “The products we’re going to build next year we’re probably not even thinking about right now.” Yet we’ll keep you updated as more integrations and developments become available.