Randle: ChatGPT drives the majority of industry foundation model revenue
Everett Randle · Weekly Recap: Sam vs. Elon, Cluely's Crazy Ad, UFC x Paramount, Apple's AI Robot · Aug 16, 2025 · at 1:51:12
Kleiner Perkins partner Everett Randle argues that the value captured by OpenAI is in the application layer via ChatGPT rather than pure foundation models.
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“The majority of all of that, or at least the plurality of all of that is ChatGPT. And ChatGPT, even though it is served by a foundation model company, is an application. It is a consumer subscription that has an immense amount of power. It has an immense amount of branding. Like, you know, it is the only, it is like the first billion plus user consumer application that's been developed by a new company in a really long time.”
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