“The question I hear most often is, ‘How can I become an OpenAI partner?’ Now there’s a clear path,” says OpenAI’s partner program leader, Colleen Kapase. Here’s everything solution providers need to know about the new OpenAI Partner Network.
OpenAI’s inaugural Partner Network is now officially live as the AI superstar seeks to on-board top AI solution providers to join its three-tiered partner program focused on driving AI business outcomes.
“The question I hear most often is, ‘How can I become an OpenAI partner?’ Now there’s a clear path,” said OpenAI’s Colleen Kapase, vice president of strategic global partnerships and ecosystems, on LinkedIn Wednesday. “The OpenAI Partner Network [is] officially live.”
Kapase is pushing solution providers with AI skill sets and successful AI customer use cases in production to sign up for the OpenAI Partner Network as quickly as possible so they can begin to generate sales, take advantage of financial incentives, and gain OpenAI resources and co-selling deals.
[Related: OpenAI Hires Google Cloud Partner Director To ‘Shape And Scale’ Global Ecosystem]
“The faster partners learn, the deeper they can go with customers. Now let’s co-sell, learn, and co-deploy together!” Kapase said.
Kapase Says There’s ‘Room For Both Large And Small Partners To Succeed’
Although large global systems integrators like Accenture and advisory firm giants like Boston Consulting Group have already signed up, the program is meant for solution providers of all shapes and sizes who can put AI systems in production for customers, Kapase recently told CRN.
“There’s room for both large and small partners to succeed with us,” Kapase told CRN in June.
“We have amazing 100- to 150-people companies that are AI-native and really are focused on nothing but AI and transformation. They have just as much of a space and a play and an expertise in our network as the large folks do,” she said. “So there’s room for both.”
One solution provider reviewing the new OpenAI Partner Network is Innovative Solutions, an AWS Priemer Partner.
Thanks to OpenAI and AWS deepening their go-to-market partnership and technology collaboration—including the availability of OpenAI’s popular Codex and GPT models on AWS AI platforms like Amazon Bedrock—new client opportunities are available.
“We are looking at [OpenAI] for sure because of what they’re doing with AWS,” said Justin Copie, CEO of Innovative Solutions.
“We are absolutely all in on AWS, but we are model-agnostic,” Copie said. “We look at models not as being, ‘Who’s the best?’ But we look at models as being, ‘Who’s the best for what application and what use case?’ Because OpenAI, quite frankly, is better at reasoning certain use cases versus Claude versus Llama.”
Specifically, Copie sees OpenAI Codex now integrated with Amazon Bedrock as a big opportunity. “Having OpenAI and Codex now on the table is, quite frankly, a really important part of this whole AI story,” he said.
OpenAI is seeking to train 300,000 certified OpenAI consultants by the end of 2026.
OpenAI Partner Network Details: Tiering, Codex Specialization And $150 Million Channel Investment
OpenAI’s inaugural partner program is a three-tier program with specializations, such as OpenAI Codex, with an up-front $150 million channel investment from the San Francisco-based AI superstar.
“The [$150 million] is going to be used for enablement, for service delivery, cost offsetting, for MDF funds, etc.” Kapase said. “There’s an alignment across our entire leadership that partners are important, we need them, and the $150 million is a signal to our partners of our investment in them.”
The OpenAI Partner Network aims to incentivize partners for the value they create and provides access to the resources and support needed to build successful AI practices.
Partners can progress through the program’s three tiers: Select, Advanced and Elite. Each tier has a high bar for sales performance, technical capability, co-sell engagement and deployment experience.
OpenAI partners can earn new OpenAI specializations that signal deeper expertise in high-impact areas such as Codex, cybersecurity and AI agents. These specializations are designed to help customers identify partners with proven capabilities in the areas that matter most to their AI transformation.
“[The OpenAI Partner Network] brings together a unified partner experience, clear progression and benefits, meaningful incentives and funding, and role-based enablement that takes partners from customer discovery through secure production deployment,” said Philip Larson, senior director of the OpenAI Partner Network, on LinkedIn.
OpenAI Programs Leader: ‘Massive Opportunity For Any Partner Out There’
Larson is a longtime channel leader who was recently hired by OpenAI after leading Google Cloud’s partner program for years as managing director of the Google Cloud Partner Network.
“Partners can engage with OpenAI in ways that fit their businesses, develop and demonstrate differentiated expertise, and be recognized and rewarded for the impact they create with our shared customers,” Larson said.
Kapase is also a longtime channel veteran who led partner programs for Google Cloud, Snowflake, Citrix and VMware over the past 25 years.
“This is a massive opportunity for any partner out there,” said Kapase.
“I mean, we have 900 million weekly active users of OpenAI technology—900 million weekly—that’s amazing. Partners do not want to miss this opportunity,” she said. “We’re really showing here that we need these partners, we care about them, we’re co-investing with them, and we’re going to do some amazing things together.”
OpenAI is expected to file for an IPO later this year.
