How Labor and CBA enticed OpenAI to Australian shores
The US$300 billion AI lab's path to Australia was not long and winding and followed sustained overtures from the Labor government and a deal with the nation's biggest company.
Earlier this month Labor's digital czar Andrew Charlton spent a week pitching AI giants on Australia as a locale for investment. As revealed by Capital Brief, one of those meetings was with OpenAI's chief operating officer Brad Lightcap.
So it was not a shock to see OpenAI announce on Thursday that it would be opening a Sydney office later this year. The USD300 billion ($459 billion) startup cited that meeting in its press release, while Lightcap said in a statement that Australia's government was "already shaping the future of AI."
Yet plans for the office were in the works for months prior to Charlton's sojourn.
OpenAI filed an application to register its Australian subsidiary in May, according to documents lodged with ASIC. It was already considering Australian expansion when its chief economist Ronnie Chatterji visited Canberra in late June, said two people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
