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OpenAI

Operator

Consumer task automation, research, e-commerce

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What they’re building

Released in early 2025, Operator is a browser-based agent that can see and interact with web pages to complete multi-step online tasks like shopping, booking, and research. It is built on the Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model, which combines GPT-4o vision with reinforcement learning for web tasks.

Company facts

Investment & ownership

Microsoft is the anchor investor. Raised a record-setting $40B round announced in March 2025, led by SoftBank, the largest private tech financing on record at the time.

Key people

  • Sam AltmanCEO & co-founder
  • Greg BrockmanPresident & co-founder

Why it matters for the agentic web

When the largest consumer AI company ships a browser agent, every website owner inherits a new visitor type: software that reads pages, fills forms, and buys. Operator is the clearest signal that the agentic web is a consumer product now, not a lab demo.

The other side of this story

OpenAI sends agents out to use the web. Our platform is the receiving end: a #name and portal make your business findable, readable, and transactable by exactly these agents.