OpenAI to acquire US product testing startup in $1.1b deal

OpenAI will acquire Statsig, a product testing startup, in an all-stock deal valuing the company at about US$1.1 billion.

Statsig, based in Seattle, builds tools for software developers to test and flag new features.

Once the deal closes, Statsig employees will join OpenAI but continue to operate independently from their Seattle office.

Statsig CEO Vijaye Raji will become OpenAI’s chief technology officer for applications, overseeing engineering for products such as ChatGPT and Codex.

OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, has been expanding its AI offerings and completed the acquisition of io Products, founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, earlier this year.

OpenAI reported an annualized revenue run rate of US$12 billion in the first seven months of 2025, according to Reuters.

The company is also preparing a tender offer to allow employee share sales at a US$500 billion valuation.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ AI giants pay premium multiples for specialized product infrastructure capabilities

OpenAI’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Statsig highlights how major tech companies prioritize specialized tooling over pure revenue metrics.

Statsig raised $100 million earlier this year 2, making the acquisition price roughly 11x that funding round in just months.

This reflects the strategic value of product experimentation infrastructure in AI development, where companies like OpenAI need sophisticated A/B testing and feature flagging capabilities to optimize products like ChatGPT at massive scale 3.

The acquisition shows that established AI leaders are willing to pay substantial premiums to acquire specialized capabilities that would take years to build internally, especially when those capabilities directly accelerate their core product development cycles.

2️⃣ Product testing infrastructure becomes critical bottleneck for AI companies at scale

OpenAI’s focus on acquiring Statsig’s experimentation platform reveals how product testing and optimization have become major operational challenges for AI companies serving millions of users.