AIBusinessNewsOpenAI nabs key Patreon execs ahead of upcoming announcementOpenAI now has the team behind the modern creator-subscription economy.OpenAI now has the team behind the modern creator-subscription economy.by Jess WeatherbedSep 23, 2026, 11:02 AM UTCShareGiftPatreon co-founder Sam Yam is joing OpenAI to lead Creator Product. Image: The VergeJess Weatherbed is a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.OpenAI has hired three former Patreon execs to anchor its product strategy for creators. After starting the creator subscription platform 13 years ago, co-founder and technology chief Sam Yam announced on X that he’s joining OpenAI to lead Creator Product.
He’s also bringing Patreon’s former product head Drew Rowny and engineering head Shannon Ma with him on the new venture, both of whom stepped down in the past few weeks.“We’re going to build together with Creators at OpenAI and share early access to a new set of tools that I think will be critically valuable to Creators and their communities,” Yam said in his announcement. “Pay attention to OpenAI DevDay next week! I’m becoming active today (and experimenting with some innovative early tools here!)”Dev Day is set for Tuesday, September 29th, though Yam also links to a post from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that teases another big announcement will be coming this week.Bringing key Patreon execs on board suggests that OpenAI is exploring ways to enter the creator monetization business, given Patreon effectively set the blueprint for the creator-subscription economy as we know it. Losing Yam is another blow for Patreon, which recently announced an extensive update roadmap to overhaul its user features after laying off 20 percent of its staff in January.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jess WeatherbedAIBusinessCreatorsNewsOpenAITechMost PopularActivision is taking over Halo as part of a massive Xbox shake-upiPhone owners can now submit claims in Apple’s $250 million Siri AI settlementCan you forget how you feel about Meta?Peloton is back with a ‘cheaper’ folding treadmillXbox is barely Xbox anymoreAdvertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad
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