OpenAI in Early Talks to Buy Security Firm Trail of Bits

OpenAI is in early talks to acquire Trail of Bits, according to The Information. The New York cybersecurity shop, active since 2012, already works with the lab on Patch the Planet, the Daybreak project that pairs OpenAI models with Trail of Bits engineers to find and patch bugs in critical open-source software.

Neither company has publicly confirmed a deal. The Information framed the discussions as preliminary. Financial wires picked up the same report within minutes of the article going live this evening.

If it closes, OpenAI would pull a key security partner in-house after months of leaning on Trail of Bits for human review of AI-found vulnerabilities. Independence is a selling point for audit firms, so clients will watch how the relationship changes if the lab owns the shop.

— via The Information.