The OpenAI Deployment Company (opens in new tab)

Nothing says easy to use revolutionary new way to work like requiring implementation middlemen. Salesforce would be proud.

> Forward Deployed Engineers

We have a word for this, it's "consultant".

I guess this is a sign that Mistral AI is on to something.

I run a dev agency, and I can spot one when I see one.

The trouble with dev agencies, "services companies", integration specialists and "forward deployed engineers" is that they scale lineraly with the number of people.

You can't 100x your revenue without at least 80x-ing your headcount.Oh, you might go for that once due to AI - but so can everyone else. After that, it's boring linear growth.

When I say "boring", I don't mean as "capitalism requires exponential growth" critique. I mean OpenAI valuation is not priced for that. They're priced for singularity. If the bulk of their revenue turns out to be bodyshop, that's...quite a different math.

The way to charge big with this kind of work is to do what big consultancies (MBB, IBM, etc) do: brand equity and (supposed) expertise in solving domain problems. OpenAI has ... interesting tech.

It's going to be interesting seeing if they can pull this off. If I were a betting man, my money would be on "no".

Surely bodyshop work will scale to trillions of dollars

So this is body leasing for ai experts under the umbrella of the openai brand? are they moving all their existing fde under this new company?

This sounds like forward engineering as a service

> The OpenAI Deployment Company is a committed partnership between OpenAI and 19 leading global investment firms, consultancies, and system integrators. The partnership is led by TPG, with Advent, Bain Capital, and Brookfield as co-lead founding partners, and B Capital, BBVA, Emergence Capital, Goanna, Goldman Sachs, SoftBank Corp., Warburg Pincus, and WCAS as founding partners.

> Investors also include leading consulting and systems integration firms, including Bain & Company, Capgemini, and McKinsey & Company.

All of these companies are invested in Palantir too right? Why does this “deployment company” sound like more Palantir?

too little too late