OpenAI has quietly picked up Chat.com, and now visitors to the domain are redirected straight to ChatGPT, the company’s flagship AI-powered chatbot.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the move with a subtle post on X, linking to Chat.com and letting the domain’s new purpose speak for itself. The acquisition seems to be another push by OpenAI to broaden ChatGPT’s appeal and make accessing it more straightforward.
Chat.com’s Journey to OpenAI
The Chat.com domain has some history. Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, bought it in early 2023 for $15.5 million. Shah briefly used the site to share his views on chat-based user experiences, which he believes are central to the future of intuitive software design, especially in the age of generative AI.
A few months later, Shah sold the domain, revealing only that he’d made a profit. Late Wednesday, he confirmed OpenAI was the buyer and implied that he might have been compensated with OpenAI shares rather than cash.
BREAKING NEWS: Secret acquirer of $15+ million domain chat .com revealed and it's exactly who you'd think.
For those of you that have been following me for a while, you may recall that I announced earlier this year that I had acquired the domain chat .com for an "8 figure sum"… https://t.co/nv1IyddP5z
— dharmesh (@dharmesh) November 6, 2024
If you’re wondering why Chat.com instead of ChatGPT.com, OpenAI’s rebranding choices might explain things. Recently, the company introduced a new line of reasoning models called “o1,” with former Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew hinting at a move towards cleaner, simpler names, as reported by The Verge.
The Chat.com acquisition could be a step in the same direction, helping ChatGPT become more accessible and maybe even signaling that OpenAI wants the bot to be synonymous with “chat” itself.
For OpenAI, a company with $6.6 billion raised in funding, snagging Chat.com — potentially for a price exceeding $15.5 million — is a drop in the bucket. High-profile domain buys are common in AI; just this year, startup Friend reportedly spent $1.8 million on Friend.com. But Chat.com, with its registration dating back to 1996, is one of the oldest domain names out there, so it’s a valuable digital asset — and now part of OpenAI’s brand push.
