OpenAI buys NextSlide to bring AI slide

OpenAI has acquired NextSlide, an AI startup that turned prompts, notes, documents and research into polished, editable presentations, with the entire team now working on ChatGPT's development. The deal was completed earlier this year but was only publicly announced this week by NextSlide founder Ahmed Beshry, who now holds the title of Product at OpenAI.

Announcing the news on the company's website and on LinkedIn, Beshry said NextSlide's goal was never simply to generate slides faster, but "to make visual communication more accessible and help more people express their ideas clearly." He added that the team would continue pursuing the same mission at OpenAI, building AI products that help people create, communicate and turn ideas into meaningful work. In his LinkedIn post, Beshry also thanked OpenAI's Fidji Simo for "seeing in the vision of NextSlide and welcoming us to OpenAI."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and neither company has revealed the size of the team involved. This marks Beshry's second startup exit, he previously co-founded Caper AI, a smart-cart and cashier-less checkout startup acquired by Instacart in 2021.

The acquisition adds to a growing list of AI and productivity-focused deals by OpenAI this year, including its acquisitions of hardware startup io and analytics firm Statsig, as the company continues expanding ChatGPT's capabilities into productivity and office-suite-style tools.