Are companies falling out of love with OpenAI? | Equity Podcast

Humanoid robotics company Figure raised eyebrows this week when it announced (https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/04/figure-drops-openai-in-favor-of-in-house-models/) it would be stepping away from a partnership with OpenAI in favor of building its own in-house AI models. Figure CEO Brett Adcock alluded to a “major breakthrough” in their own process and plans to unveil “something no one has ever seen on a humanoid” in the coming month. 

Figure isn’t the only company experimenting with non-OpenAI solutions either. Just last week, researchers from Stanford and the University of Washington demonstrated (https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/05/researchers-created-an-open-rival-to-openais-o1-reasoning-model-for-under-50/) that it’s possible to train a highly capable “reasoning” model for under $50 in cloud compute credits, a stark contrast to the costs often associated with OpenAI’s models.

TechCrunch’s Kirsten Korosec, Margaux MacColl, and Max Zeff are diving into the biggest news on today’s episode of Equity (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/) , including how the tide could be changing for OpenAI. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• Notable new hires in startups and venture, from Stripe’s new lead for ‘startup and VC partnerships’ (https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/03/stripe-brings-aboard-new-head-of-startup-and-vc-partnerships/) to Andreessen Horowitz’s controversial pick (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/nyregion/daniel-penny-hired-andreessen-horowitz.html) for its American Dynamism team lead.


• Two space startups teaming up to build the next generation of telescopes (https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/04/two-space-startups-have-merged-to-create-the-next-generation-of-telescopes/) . 


• Elon Musk’s latest play, and how Silicon Valley is reacting to the tech bros taking over the federal government (https://news.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-peter-thiel-aligned-150849533.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20federal%20government%20has%20been%20infiltrated,some%20of%20the%20most%20sensitive%20U.S.%20government%20data.) .

Equity will be back next week, so don’t miss it!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780) , Overcast (https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity) , Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul_g94iCRgpQ) and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X (https://twitter.com/EquityPod) and Threads (https://www.threads.net/@equitypod) , at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/) .

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.

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Post from TechCrunch on February 07, 2025

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