DeployCo (OpenAI Deployment Company) vs Applied Compute

Two founding-era startups whose product IS the forward-deployed motion, both born of OpenAI — one the lab's own deployment subsidiary, one built by three ex-OpenAI researchers.

	DeployCo (OpenAI Deployment Company)	Applied Compute
Open roles	1	1
Comp on board	$170K–$400K + equity	Undisclosed
FDE type	True forward-deployed	True forward-deployed
Travel	Medium	Medium
Comp	Competitive	Undisclosed
Stage	Early-stage	Early-stage
Our take	OpenAI spun deployment out as a $4B-backed company of its own — this founding FDE seat is a bet that the field motion, not the model, is the business.	Three ex-OpenAI researchers building 'Specific Intelligence' — custom models trained on a customer's own data — where forward deployment isn't the support function, it's the entire product.

Bottom line

Same bet, same lineage, opposite disclosure. DeployCo gives you frontier-brand air cover and a posted $170K–$400K+equity band; Applied Compute is the faster-marked, research-heavy play (undisclosed comp, $1.3B-range valuation talks, real enterprise logos live). Pick brand-plus-transparency vs velocity-plus-upside.