Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) general partner David George said OpenAI understands a point many companies miss: the purpose of a business is to create customers. In his view, OpenAI is unlikely to win simply because it leads in models, chips, costs, or product performance. Its stronger advantage, he argued, is the ability to create new categories of customers and build a more durable distribution strategy.
George said that in a market where intelligent services are already widely available, the real test is whether a company can trigger new user behaviors and secure distribution at scale. He grouped the core levers for building a frontier-scale AI business into four areas: creating new behaviors, reaching a large user base, pricing to capture value, and increasing switching costs. Of those, he said the last two are less likely to support a lasting edge, leaving the first two as the decisive factors.
He also pointed to OpenAI’s track record in chat interfaces, reasoning, tool use, and Computer Use, saying the company has repeatedly found breakthroughs that looked simple only in hindsight. According to George, OpenAI is now building long-term distribution in platform form, supported by a broad user base across consumers, professionals, and enterprises, as well as deep control over its own technology stack.
According to ChainCatcher, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) general partner David George said OpenAI understands something rare but important: the purpose of a business is to create customers.
George argued that OpenAI will not win simply because of leadership in models, chips, cost performance, or products. Instead, he said, the company’s advantage comes from its ability to create new kinds of customers and from having a more durable distribution strategy.
New behavior and distribution are the core battleground
He said that now that intelligent services are widely available, the key question is whether a company can unlock new usage behaviors and win distribution.
George summarized the levers for building a frontier-scale AI business in four parts: creating new behaviors, reaching large numbers of users, pricing to capture value, and increasing switching costs. He added that the latter two are difficult to turn into a long-term advantage, and that competition will ultimately be decided by the first two.
How he sees OpenAI’s platform strategy
The post also said OpenAI has repeatedly found breakthroughs that seemed obvious only after the fact across chat interfaces, reasoning, tool calling, and Computer Use, and is building long-term distribution through a platform approach.
George said OpenAI has a broad user base spanning consumers, professional users, and enterprises, along with the ability to go deep into its own technology stack. In his view, that puts the company in a stronger position to identify reusable new patterns and foundational capabilities.
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