From AI models to consulting: OpenAI launches DeployCo for bespoke AI

Surprisingly, OpenAI has announced an unexpected shift in its business model, one that will lead Sam Altman’s company into the world of consulting. To do so, it will launch The OpenAI Deployment Company (DeployCo), a new company that “is being created with a clear mission: not only to develop the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence, but to ensure that large corporations can successfully integrate it into their daily operations.”

In any case, OpenAI will not be alone in this venture. The new company will be a strategic alliance involving 19 investment firms, consultancies, and systems integrators, with Advent, Bain Capital, and Brookfield serving as principal founding partners, and B Capital, BBVA, Emergence Capital, Goanna, Goldman Sachs, SoftBank Corp., Warburg Pincus, and WCAS as founding partners. The investors also include well-known firms such as Bain & Company, Capgemini, and McKinsey & Company.

According to its statement, the launch is backed by a $4 billion investment from venture capital firms and prestigious consultancies such as TPG, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Bain & Company. This capital will be used to scale operations and acquire specialized firms that will accelerate technology adoption. As a first strategic step, OpenAI has agreed to acquire applied AI consulting and engineering firm Tomoro, immediately bringing on board 150 engineers with expertise in AI implementation.

“OpenAI was founded as a research and deployment company. From the beginning, we have believed that building powerful AI models is only part of the job. The real impact lies in helping people and organizations use these systems safely, effectively, and at scale. In recent years, more than one million businesses have adopted OpenAI’s products and APIs. Across all of these deployments, one trend has become increasingly clear: the next stage of enterprise AI will be defined by how effectively companies can implement this technology in real-world use cases, and by the ability of our Alliance partner ecosystem to support them,” the company explains.

DeployCo’s value proposition will focus on Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs). These specialists will work directly within client organizations to redesign workflows, connect AI models to sensitive internal data, and ensure that systems are scalable and secure.

The idea is for FDE teams to develop custom AI systems within the complexity of real business environments, where security models, permissions, governance, compliance requirements, operational controls, and legacy infrastructure are fundamental constraints, not exceptional cases. Their work will focus on solving high-value problems for clients in production environments where the consequences are real and the impact is measurable. OpenAI expects this approach to help organizations move from experimenting with AI to reliable implementation.

This move comes after many studies claiming that AI is not delivering the returns many companies using it might have expected, and it marks AI’s transition from a phase of experimentation and generative AI tools to one of deep enterprise implementation. The idea is for DeployCo to be responsible for ensuring that AI truly translates into real, measurable economic value for the global economy.

Image: OpenAI