The buzz in the halls of Web Summit isn't just about artificial intelligence; it's about how to harness it. More than the tech itself, OpenAI's business strategy of becoming a foundational utility is setting the entire event's agenda.
The API-First Playbook
For years, tech giants
built walled gardens. OpenAI did the opposite: it offered its groundbreaking models to the world through an Application Programming Interface, or API. This strategy positions OpenAI less as a single product and more as a fundamental utility, akin to a power grid for intelligence. Instead of trying to build every possible AI application itself, it empowered hundreds of thousands of developers to build on top of its platform. This API-first approach has proven incredibly successful. In early November 2026, OpenAI's president confirmed that enterprise customers, many of whom access the technology via its API, now account for the majority of the company's revenue. This business model is the invisible force directing conversations in Lisbon, where the focus is less on what AI can do in theory and more on what businesses can build with it today.
Forcing the 'Build vs. Buy' Debate
One of the most urgent conversations at Web Summit is the classic 'build versus buy' dilemma, now supercharged by AI. With powerful models available via an API, companies face a critical choice: invest millions and years developing proprietary AI, or integrate a ready-made solution from a provider like OpenAI and get to market faster. This question dominates panels and investor meetings. The API strategy has lowered the barrier to entry so dramatically that even small startups can leverage world-class AI, creating a surge of new products and services. Consequently, established companies are forced to justify massive internal AI development costs when a robust, scalable alternative is just an API call away. The debate has shifted from technological feasibility to strategic efficiency.
A New Gold Rush for Developers
OpenAI's strategy has kicked off a gold rush, but the ones getting rich aren't just selling the shovels—they're building entire new towns. The halls of Web Summit are filled with startups that exist solely because of this API ecosystem. The conversation has evolved from simply 'writing code' to 'orchestrating AI agents, models, and tools'. Developers are now system designers, piecing together services to create novel applications at a speed that was unimaginable just a few years ago. This has created a vibrant, if chaotic, new layer of the tech economy. It’s also a central theme at the conference's Developer Summit, where the focus is on dismantling proprietary systems and reclaiming the software stack by building on top of—and sometimes around—these powerful APIs.
The Open vs. Closed Frontier
The success of OpenAI's proprietary, API-driven model has intensified a fundamental debate at the heart of the AI world: open versus closed. Will the future of intelligence be delivered via secure but controlled APIs from a few major labs, or will it be driven by open-source, community-led models that anyone can inspect and modify? This is a recurring topic at Web Summit, touching on everything from security and dependency to cost and innovation. While many companies are building on OpenAI's platform, there's also a palpable anxiety about becoming too reliant on a single 'black box' provider. This tension fuels the search for alternatives and drives conversations about the need for a more diverse, interoperable AI ecosystem to prevent a few giants from owning the primary infrastructure of the digital age.
