Across the arc of human progress, I have divided the world economic history into three fundamental eras: the Invention Society, the Innovation Society, and the Accelerated Society. The Invention Society was when humankind discovered the building blocks of science— gravity, electromagnetism, and calculus—yet lacked the ability to commercialize them. The Innovation Society took those inventions and converted them into products—light bulbs, automobiles, vaccines, and transistors. But now, we are in the Accelerated Society: a civilization where ideas scale instantly through digital fabrics, where code replaces factories, and where intelligence—human or artificial—becomes the new oil.

For Africa, this transition offers the greatest promise in its history. The continent largely missed the full benefits of the industrial and early innovation ages. But in the Accelerated Society, the marginal cost of intelligence is near zero. The same AI algorithm that powers a Silicon Valley startup can also power a logistics company in Lagos or a healthcare agent in Nairobi. The barriers of geography, infrastructure, and even scale have been flattened. What remains is ambition, execution, and knowledge accumulation—three factors that now define competitiveness.

Startups in the Era of Acceleration

Future African startups will not merely copy Western models; they will reframe problems around the continent’s unique realities. A fintech in Lagos will not just digitize payments but reimagine credit scoring for people without formal data footprints. A logistics startup in Kampala will use predictive AI to organize informal transport routes. The startups that win will be those that combine deep local insight with universal intelligence systems.

The Accelerated Society demands that African founders become systems builders, not just app creators. They must design ecosystems—data, APIs, and algorithms—that make AI the engine of inclusion. Just as the Industrial Revolution rewarded those who owned steam and steel, the Accelerated Society will reward those who own intelligence pipelines: the datasets, domain expertise, and adaptive AI models built from Africa’s context.

AI as Africa’s Development Shortcut

Artificial Intelligence represents Africa’s most potent development shortcut. In the past, building national capacity required decades of industrial policy. Today, an AI-trained system can offer near-human diagnostic support to a rural doctor in Sokoto or recommend precision fertilizers to a farmer in Eldoret. This is the power of exponential systems: they compress time, democratize capability, and compound learning.

But to extract this dividend, Africa must build local AI capacity. That means universities that teach prompt engineering, startups that train models on African languages, and governments that deploy AI to predict floods, manage traffic, and optimize public finance. The AI age is not just about technology; it is about institutional redesign, where data becomes a national asset, and intelligence becomes a public utility.

The Future: From Adoption to Creation

In the coming decade, the defining African startups will not be those that merely use AI but those that create AI tuned to local nuances—voice agents that understand Pidgin and Swahili, credit models trained on market transaction data, and educational tutors that teach mathematics through local examples. These are not dreams; they are blueprints for AI-enabled prosperity.

My message is simple: while the West leads in invention and Asia perfects innovation, Africa’s chance lies in acceleration. By leaping over industrial bottlenecks and harnessing AI as the great equalizer, the continent can transform from consumer to creator, from imitator to innovator. The future startup in Africa will not just chase profit; it will code development itself.

OpenAI’s landmark deal with AMD marks one of the most significant GPU supply and equity partnerships in the artificial intelligence industry to date.

The deal, which is projected to generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue for AMD, underscores the fierce race among AI firms to secure the computing power required to sustain large-scale model training and deployment.

Under the partnership, AMD will provide multiple generations of its Instinct graphics processing units (GPUs), beginning with the Instinct MI450 series, which the company says will outperform Nvidia’s forthcoming Rubin CPX chips. The first gigawatt of capacity will be deployed in the second half of 2026, when the MI450 enters production.

AMD said the agreement extends beyond a traditional supply contract, describing it as a “strategic alignment” that integrates OpenAI’s software and hardware optimization feedback into AMD’s GPU design process. The collaboration is expected to shape AMD’s AI roadmap through 2030, with OpenAI serving as both a customer and a development partner.

The six-gigawatt supply commitment — enough to power about 4.5 million homes — marks one of the largest single orders in AMD’s history. AMD’s current Instinct MI355X and MI300X GPUs are already used in certain OpenAI workloads and are recognized for their performance in large language model (LLM) inference, thanks to their expanded memory bandwidth and capacity.

As part of the deal, OpenAI will also receive the right to purchase up to 160 million AMD shares — roughly a 10% equity stake — tied to performance milestones and chip deployment schedules. The first tranche will vest when OpenAI receives the first gigawatt of compute capacity, with subsequent tranches tied to additional purchases up to the full 6 GW.

OpenAI’s ownership stake will further depend on AMD’s stock performance, with the final tranche vesting once the stock hits $600 per share. AMD’s shares closed Friday at $164.67 but surged nearly 35% to $222.24 by Monday after news of the partnership broke — signaling strong investor confidence in AMD’s growing relevance in the AI compute space.

Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s chair and CEO, described the partnership as transformative. “We are thrilled to partner with OpenAI to deliver AI compute at massive scale,” Su said. “This partnership brings the best of AMD and OpenAI together to create a true win-win enabling the world’s most ambitious AI buildout and advancing the entire AI ecosystem.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman echoed the sentiment, calling the deal “a major step in building the compute capacity to realize AI’s full potential.” Altman has made chip diversification a central part of OpenAI’s long-term strategy, seeking to avoid dependency on Nvidia, whose GPUs remain the backbone of most AI systems globally.

The AMD deal follows a wave of agreements OpenAI has announced in recent weeks as it races to secure AI compute infrastructure for its expanding “Stargate” network — a global buildout of supercomputing data centers with planned capacity exceeding seven gigawatts.

Last month, Nvidia agreed to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply at least 10 gigawatts of AI compute capacity. Around the same time, OpenAI and Broadcom signed a $10 billion deal to co-develop and manufacture custom AI accelerators. The company also inked partnerships with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to supply DRAM memory chips and support data center construction in South Korea.

Analysts say the AMD-OpenAI partnership signals a new phase in the global chip race, as OpenAI diversifies suppliers and AMD positions itself as a credible challenger to Nvidia’s near-monopoly in AI GPUs. The collaboration could also reshape competitive dynamics in AI infrastructure, especially as OpenAI pushes forward with projects designed to power the next generation of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

With this deal, AMD moves squarely into the center of the global AI buildout — one that could redefine its market standing and challenge Nvidia’s dominance over the most lucrative sector in modern computing.

OpenAI has announced a sweeping expansion of ChatGPT that could alter the balance of power in the tech industry, revealing plans to build an app store-like ecosystem inside its popular AI chatbot — a move that directly challenges the long-standing dominance of Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

At its DevDay event on Monday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said users will soon be able to interact with third-party applications directly within ChatGPT, marking a shift that transforms the chatbot from a conversational assistant into a full-scale digital platform. The company also unveiled a software development kit (SDK) that allows developers to build and publish their own ChatGPT-compatible apps — a significant step toward creating a new kind of app economy centered on artificial intelligence.

Altman revealed that ChatGPT now boasts 800 million weekly users, giving OpenAI a massive audience to support the new marketplace.

“This will enable a new generation of apps that are interactive, adaptive, and personalized — that you can chat with,” he said. “We hope this will be a big deal for helping developers rapidly scale products.”

ChatGPT Becomes a Platform

Under the new model, users can invoke apps naturally within conversations — for example, asking Spotify to curate a playlist, Zillow to show homes in a specific area, or Expedia to recommend vacation packages. When an app is mentioned for the first time, ChatGPT will prompt users to connect it and select what data to share, effectively allowing users to operate multiple apps through natural dialogue.

OpenAI said it will begin accepting app submissions later this year for review and publication. Developers will also gain the ability to monetize their apps through OpenAI’s upcoming commerce functionality, enabling purchases and transactions to take place directly inside ChatGPT.

The company is also launching a public directory where users can browse available apps. Those meeting higher standards for quality and functionality will be featured prominently, both within the ChatGPT interface and in the app listing itself.

Among the first partners in the program are major global brands, including Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow, with additional partners such as AllTrails, Khan Academy, Instacart, Peloton, Target, Tripadvisor, and Uber expected to roll out later this year.

OpenAI’s Push Beyond AI — and Into Big Tech Territory

The new announcement marks the latest in a series of moves by OpenAI that have steadily expanded its reach into areas long dominated by Google, Apple, and Meta. Once known solely for its breakthroughs in natural language processing, OpenAI has been methodically transforming ChatGPT into an all-encompassing digital hub — one that combines search, communication, productivity, and commerce in a single interface.

Earlier this year, the company began testing its own search engine, allowing users to query the web in real time — a direct challenge to Google Search’s supremacy. It also introduced a browser tool within ChatGPT that enables users to navigate websites, read news articles, and access live data without leaving the platform.

In addition, OpenAI has touted social-style features that allow users to share prompts, experiences, and creative projects — a move that analysts say could evolve into a lightweight social network. These expansions, combined with Monday’s announcement of an app store and in-chat commerce, have fueled the perception that OpenAI is building an “everything app” — a single digital environment capable of replacing multiple online tools.

OpenAI is believed to be positioning itself as a new kind of platform gatekeeper — one that could bypass traditional app store rules and commission structures. For over a decade, Apple and Google have dominated mobile software distribution, taking cuts of up to 30% on app purchases.

Altman did not specify what percentage OpenAI might charge developers, but he confirmed that app monetization would be part of the platform’s long-term model. The company’s approach — blending natural conversation with integrated commerce — could appeal to developers and businesses frustrated by restrictive app store policies.

This conversational interface could prove especially disruptive, analysts note, because it streamlines how users access digital services. Instead of searching, downloading, and opening different apps, users can simply ask ChatGPT to perform a task — effectively collapsing the digital journey from several steps into one.

Toward the “Everything App”

Altman’s ambition to make ChatGPT the hub of digital interaction echoes a concept that major tech companies have long pursued but never fully realized: a single, unified platform that integrates work, entertainment, shopping, communication, and productivity.

While Meta has tried to pivot Facebook and WhatsApp into commerce-driven ecosystems, and Apple continues to expand its services portfolio, OpenAI’s advantage lies in its conversational interface — one that can personalize responses, automate workflows, and connect users directly to multiple external services through a single chat.

If successful, OpenAI’s app marketplace could represent the beginning of a broader shift — from mobile app ecosystems to AI-driven conversational ecosystems, where the line between applications and intelligent agents begins to blur.

With its search, social, browser, and now app store functionalities, OpenAI is clearly expanding beyond the boundaries of artificial intelligence research into a comprehensive digital infrastructure.