OpenAI лезет в аптечку: Сэм Альтман хочет долю от ваших лекарств

Sam Altman apparently finally realized that subscriptions for twenty dollars a month won't take you far when your electricity and NVIDIA chip bills are measured in billions. While the whole world debates how GPT-5 will write essays, the OpenAI chief is eyeing the most lucrative and inflexible market on the planet—pharmaceuticals. The idea is simple and cynical at the same time: the company is ready not just to provide access to its technology, but effectively act as a venture investor for those seeking new treatment methods.

Instead of standard payment per token, OpenAI wants to receive a percentage of future drug sales. Context here is more important than the news itself. Developing a new drug today is a casino where the stake is two billion dollars and the development cycle stretches for ten years.

Most of that money goes into trying variations that ultimately don't work. AI promises to cut this path many times over. Google with its DeepMind division has been playing in this field for a long time, creating Isomorphic Labs, but Altman proposes a different scheme.

He wants to create an ecosystem where OpenAI takes on computational risks in exchange for long-term royalties. This turns an IT company into a full-fledged Big Pharma partner that divides both risks and colossal profits with them. Such an approach radically changes the rules of the game in the industry.

Previously, AI models were perceived as a tool, like an advanced microscope or powerful calculator. Now Altman is claiming intellectual co-authorship. If the model helped find a molecule that cures a rare disease, why should the model developer settle for a couple of cents per request?

This is a logical step in OpenAI's evolution: from a purely technological startup to a global holding that controls key intellectual assets in medicine and biology. For biotech startups, this offer looks like a deal with the devil. On one hand, they get access to computational power and models they can't afford.

On the other—they surrender part of their future independence and profit to a company that already seeks dominance in all spheres. Altman emphasizes that no such agreements exist yet, but the very publicity of this statement suggests that negotiations behind closed doors are already in full swing. The question is how much regulators will allow OpenAI to monopolize the process of discovering new knowledge.

If one company owns the keys to creating most new drugs, it will create unprecedented leverage over the healthcare system. But such trifles are unlikely to stop Sam Altman—his goal has always been broader than just creating a chatbot. He is building the foundation for a world where any valuable thought or discovery has a built-in tax in favor of OpenAI.

The bottom line: OpenAI is transforming from a software supplier into an investment fund with a supercomputer at its core. Is the industry ready to pay Sam Altman an intelligence tax?