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New Delhi: OpenAI has announced one of its biggest acquisitions yet, buying Seattle-area startup Statsig for $1.1 billion in an all-stock deal. The move is not just about bringing in Statsig’s product testing platform but also about hiring its founder, Vijaye Raji, who will take on a key leadership role at the ChatGPT maker.
The deal, revealed on Tuesday, marks a surprise turn for Statsig, which was valued at the same $1.1 billion figure during its last funding round in May. The acquisition still requires regulatory approval, but once cleared, the startup will continue to serve its existing customers while its employees are given the option to transition to OpenAI.
OpenAI named Raji, a former Facebook engineering leader, as its new Chief Technology Officer of Applications. He will report to Fidji Simo, the ex-Instacart CEO who became OpenAI’s applications team head earlier this year.
“As part of this transition,” OpenAI said, “we’re acquiring Statsig, one of the most trusted experimentation platforms in the industry — powering A/B testing, feature flagging, and real-time decisioning for some of the world’s most innovative companies, including OpenAI.”
Statsig, founded in 2021, has grown quickly in just four years. Based in Bellevue, Washington, the company employs around 155 people and plans to hit nearly 200 by 2026. Raji has often credited its unusual five-day-a-week in-office policy for fostering collaboration and speed.
Statsig’s platform helps companies run large-scale experiments like A/B testing, allowing them to test product features before rolling them out widely. For OpenAI, which is rapidly expanding its apps ecosystem, this could prove vital. The ChatGPT maker has already been experimenting with features like custom GPTs and memory, and an in-house experimentation platform adds another layer of speed and control.
The acquisition also reflects OpenAI’s growing footprint in Seattle. The company opened an office in Bellevue last October and is preparing to move into City Center Plaza, a site once occupied by Microsoft. According to LinkedIn data, OpenAI already has more than 150 employees in the region.
The $1.1 billion all-stock price tag is notable because it matches Statsig’s last private valuation, rather than offering a premium. Analysts see this as a signal that investors are betting on the long-term value of OpenAI shares, particularly after its $40 billion fundraise earlier this year that pushed its overall valuation to $300 billion.
For Raji, the move is both a professional leap and a return to leading at scale. At Facebook, he worked on major products including Marketplace before striking out to build Statsig. Now, at OpenAI, he is expected to play a central role in shaping how the company builds consumer-facing applications.
If regulators approve the deal, Statsig will continue to operate independently from its Bellevue office while being folded deeper into OpenAI’s workflow. Employees will have the option to join OpenAI directly, offering them the chance to contribute to one of the fastest-growing companies in tech.
With Raji now onboard, OpenAI is signaling that its next phase will be just as much about building consumer products as training frontier models.
