OpenAI might have spent over $15 million plus some shares to acquire 'Chat.com'

In a simple eight-letter post on social media platform X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed the acquisition of the domain "Chat.com." Visiting the website now automatically redirects to ChatGPT. Reportedy, "Chat.com" was previously bought for over $15 million, and now has found its new home, in the hands of the ChatGPT maker, and in true sense the domain seems a logical fit for OpenAI.

Previously, the domain was owned by Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot. In an post on X, Dharmesh spilled all the details about the website and its purchase history. Shah purchased the domain for $15.5 million but sold the website a few months later and also announced the same.

In a LinkedIn post, Shah revealed the reason why he purchased the domain. He said:

The reason I bought chat.com is simple: I think Chat-based UX (#ChatUX) is the next big thing in software. Communicating with computers/software through a natural language interface is much more intuitive. This is made possible by Generative A.I.

However, as per Shah, he "was not at liberty to share who the acquirer was" until the buyer was ready to reveal themselves. Then, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman himself confirmed the purchase, making the deal officially public.

Unfortunately, OpenAI hasn't revealed how much it paid to acquire "Chat.com." But by the looks of it, OpenAI has obviously paid more than the previous $15.5 million price. However, going by Shah's post, it appears that OpenAI has paid the HubSpot co-founder in shares instead of cash.

According to the domain history website who.is (via Engadget), "Chat.com" was first registered back in September 1996. Before the latest handover, its was sold in 2023 to HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah. It was reported to be one of the top two publicly reported domain sales ever.