Kantrowitz: OpenAI and Anthropic remain startups due to immature technology
Alex Kantrowitz · Big Tech’s Insane Hidden AI Spending, Ranking Anthropic vs. OpenAI, AI For Travel Debate · Aug 24, 2026 · at 51:04
Alex Kantrowitz and Ranjan Roy analyze executive turnover at OpenAI and whether multi-billion-dollar AI frontier labs function as mature enterprises or early startups.
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“They are startups in one really important way. And that is like, yes, the numbers are as big as any enterprise company most, right? But one of the things that defines a startup is you're not fully set on your product. You know, you become an established, like people like the old question, well, what's a startup and what's not? I mean, part of it is you sort of, when you're not a startup anymore when you have a thing that you sell, right? And it's just kind of the thing. You sort of find that product market fit, and you settle into it, and that's what you are. Now, of course, you adapt. But the thing with OpenAI and Anthropik, by the way, that gives them the nature of a startup is They're, there's the technology that they're developing is not mature. It's still growing. The capabilities are growing fast. The offering is growing fast. So you don't have the stability of a traditional big company, even if the numbers look like you do.”
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