OpenAI acquire AI startup Crossing Minds

OpenAI has expanded its AI capabilities by acquiring the team behind Crossing Minds, a startup specializing in advanced AI recommendation systems. Announced on June 27, 2025, the move marks another strategic growth in OpenAI’s drive to enrich its generative AI ecosystem

🤖 What is Crossing Minds?

Crossing Minds, founded in early 2017 by Sebastian Thrun, Emile Contal, and Alexandre Robicquet, built cutting-edge recommendation systems for e-commerce using customer behavior and LLM-backed embeddings
Backed by investors like Index Ventures, Shopify, Plug and Play, and Radical Ventures, it raised over $13.5 million in funding

🧩 The Integration with OpenAI

• The entire Crossing Minds team has joined OpenAI to work on recommendation systems, retrieval-augmented generation, and AI agents
• Co-founder Alexandre Robicquet will take on a role in “Research, Post-training and Agents at OpenAI,” according to his LinkedIn update
• After this transition, Crossing Minds has paused taking on new clients, signaling a full migration into OpenAI

🌐 Why This Matters

1. Foundational tech for ChatGPT and beyond
   Integrating Crossing Minds’ expertise gives OpenAI in-house recommendation capabilities, complementing ChatGPT’s existing shopping and suggestion features
2. Strengthens personalization and privacy
   The startup’s approach studies on-site behavior while maintaining user privacy—aligned with OpenAI’s commitment to privacy-preserving AI.
3. Part of a larger acquisition strategy
   This integration follows earlier hires and acquisitions of Windsurf (for AI coding) and Jony Ive’s io hardware team, showing a multi-pronged AI growth approach cnbc
4. Accelerating commerce-focused AI tools
   With this, OpenAI positions itself to compete in e-commerce recommendations against rivals like Google, Perplexity, and Daydream

🔮 What to Expect Next

• Enhanced AI agents: Improved personalization, product suggestions, and contextual recommendations within ChatGPT experiences.
• Retailer-facing tools: Expect more robust tools or APIs enabling brands to leverage OpenAI’s AI for tailored consumer engagement.
• Cross-functional innovation: The team may also contribute to broader agent and retrieval-augmented language model (RAG) development.

✅ Summary

This move underscores OpenAI’s ambition to build foundational AI across domains—from coding to hardware and now personalized recommendations.