OpenAI Acquires Chat.com Domain from HubSpot Co-founder Dharmesh Shah According to a LinkedIn post from Shah, he hinted that the sale, valued in the eight-figure range, was transacted through shares rather than cash.
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HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah recently revealed he sold the domain name chat.com to OpenAI for over USD 15 million, marking one of the largest domain sales in recent years.
Shah had acquired chat.com in 2023, envisioning its potential as a prime address for conversational AI technology. Although he didn't initially disclose the buyer, it was soon evident when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted the link on X (formerly Twitter), where chat.com automatically routed to OpenAI's ChatGPT.
According to a LinkedIn post from Shah, he hinted that the sale, valued in the eight-figure range, was transacted through shares rather than cash.
Shah expressed his long-standing friendship with Altman, stating he felt comfortable opting for shares given his belief in OpenAI's mission and his interest in holding a stake in the company. "I always wanted to own OpenAI shares," Shah noted, adding that his friendship with Altman also influenced his choice not to profit directly.
Explaining his motivation to buy chat.com, Shah emphasized that he saw "chat-based UX" as a revolutionary shift in human-computer interaction. "Communicating with software through a natural language interface is much more intuitive," he said, attributing this evolution to generative AI. Shah described chat.com as a "brilliant" domain due to its simplicity and inherent user trust, predicting it would host a successful product.
The sale aligns with OpenAI's gradual rebranding, as they shift away from the "GPT" brand for newer products. In September, the company introduced a new series of models, beginning with the "o1" line, aimed at offering more user-friendly model names.
