OpenAI has officially opened its merchandise store to the public, marking a significant shift from its previously employee-only “OpenAI Supply Co.” The launch coincides with the company’s 10-year anniversary celebration and was announced via the company’s X (formerly Twitter) feed.
The OpenAI Supply Co. website, which was marked as “coming soon” in July 2024 according to the Internet Archive, now allows ChatGPT users who aren’t employees to purchase branded merchandise for the first time. The response has been overwhelming—the post garnered over 3,000 likes within 15 hours, and multiple sizes of available items quickly sold out, with only extra small and small sizes remaining for sweatshirts and tees.
The merchandise collection offers fascinating insights into OpenAI’s internal culture and product roadmap. Among the most intriguing items are five Pokémon-style trading cards featuring upcoming and existing products: Sora 2 (described as “shape-shifter”), GPT-5 (“two worlds, one model”), image generation (with a “huge” wow factor), Sora (“sci-fi”), and the OpenAI Blossom (“back and better”). The Pokémon reference is particularly notable given recent controversies around OpenAI’s Sora video generator producing unauthorized versions of Pikachu.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a prominent theme throughout the merchandise line. One shirt features the text “AGI that benefits all of humanity,” a direct quote from OpenAI’s charter. The employee log-in even suggests the email agi@openai.com, underscoring the company’s focus on this breakthrough milestone.
The hat collection is particularly diverse, including Sora beanies, research-themed baseball caps, and one featuring ChatGPT’s phone number (1-800-CHATGPT, which still works). A camo print hat resembling the popular Harris/Walz design was released in July 2024. Other caps include silver flames (early 2000s nostalgia), “SF” letters representing San Francisco, and a “Thinking deeply” cap honoring OpenAI’s reasoning model from September 2024.
The “Thinking deeply” hat bears striking resemblance to Anthropic’s “thinking” caps, which became status symbols in the AI community. The launch came after developer Tibor Blaho posted about the merchandise 10 months ago, suggesting OpenAI make its store public—to which the company responded with the link and an eye emoji just 30 minutes before the official announcement.
Key Quotes
AGI that benefits all of humanity
This phrase appears on one of the t-shirts and is taken directly from OpenAI’s charter. It represents the company’s stated mission and highlights how AGI (artificial general intelligence) remains central to OpenAI’s identity and public messaging, even on casual merchandise.
OpenAI should make its store public instead of keeping it employee-only
Developer Tibor Blaho posted this comment 10 months before the official launch. OpenAI responded to his post just 30 minutes before announcing the public store, suggesting the company had been listening to fan demand and planning this release for some time.
Our Take
OpenAI’s merchandise launch is more strategic than it appears. The trading cards featuring unreleased products like GPT-5 and Sora 2 function as both hype-building and market testing—gauging public interest while maintaining plausible deniability about release timelines. The rapid sellout demonstrates that AI companies have cultivated devoted fanbases comparable to consumer tech giants like Apple.
The AGI-centric branding is particularly bold, given ongoing debates about whether AGI is achievable or even well-defined. By putting “AGI that benefits all of humanity” on t-shirts, OpenAI is normalizing the concept and reinforcing its position as the company most associated with this goal. The similarity to Anthropic’s merchandise suggests AI company swag is becoming a new form of tribal signaling in tech circles, where wearing the right hat indicates insider status and ideological alignment with particular approaches to AI development.
Why This Matters
This merchandise launch represents OpenAI’s evolution from a research lab to a consumer-facing brand with significant cultural influence. The rapid sellout demonstrates the intense public interest in AI technology and the desire to be associated with leading AI companies. The trading cards featuring GPT-5 and Sora 2 provide rare glimpses into OpenAI’s product roadmap, suggesting these releases may be closer than publicly acknowledged.
The AGI-themed merchandise reflects OpenAI’s ambitious mission and the race among AI companies to achieve artificial general intelligence. The similarity to Anthropic’s merchandise and the emergence of AI company swag as status symbols indicates how AI has become a cultural phenomenon beyond just technology. This mirrors the tech industry’s history of branded merchandise becoming collectibles and identity markers.
For the broader AI industry, this signals increasing mainstream appeal and brand loyalty around AI companies. The fact that fan-created unauthorized merchandise already existed shows pent-up demand. As AI tools become more integrated into daily life, brand affinity with AI companies may influence consumer choices and talent recruitment, making cultural positioning increasingly important for AI firms competing for mindshare and market dominance.
Related Stories
- OpenAI Lost Nearly Half of Its AI Safety Team, Ex-Researcher Says
- OpenAI’s Competition Sparks Investor Anxiety Over Talent Retention at Microsoft, Meta, and Google
- Elon Musk’s $97B OpenAI Bid: Strategic Move or Elaborate Troll?
- Sam Altman and Jony Ive Partner on AI Device, Target $1B Funding
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-merch-supply-co-2025-12