OpenAI has quietly expanded its footprint in the financial technology space with the acquisition of Hiro Finance, a startup focused on using AI to guide personal financial decisions. The deal was announced by Hiro’s founder, Ethan Bloch, with no financial terms disclosed, and results in the startup shutting down its product as the entire team joins the Sam Altman-led company.
Following the acquisition, Hiro has stopped accepting new users and is in the process of winding down its services completely. Existing user data is expected to be deleted within a defined period, highlighting that OpenAI’s primary interest lies in integrating the team and its technology rather than maintaining the consumer-facing product. Such acqui-hire deals have become increasingly common in the AI sector, where competition for talent with expertise in applied machine learning and domain-specific modelling is intense.
“Starting today, Hiro is no longer accepting new signups. The Hiro product will stop functioning on April 20, 2026 and all data will be deleted from our servers on May 13, 2026. Existing users can export all of their data from settings until May 13, 2026,” Bloch noted.
For OpenAI, the acquisition shows another effort to expand its capabilities by bringing in specialized startups and strengthening its push into industry-focused AI applications. Notably, Hiro was working on advanced tools that went beyond traditional budgeting by using AI to simulate financial decisions and future outcomes. Instead of simply tracking expenses, its platform allowed users to ask practical, real-life questions (like whether to invest or save) and receive thoughtful, scenario-based guidance. And such focus on ‘financial reasoning’ rather than simple data aggregation aligns closely with the evolution of modern AI systems.
The financial services sector presents a particularly attractive opportunity for AI integration. It is data-rich, analytically complex, and heavily reliant on forecasting and risk assessment – areas where AI can offer significant advantages. Traditional personal finance applications have largely focused on backwards-looking insights, like categorizing expenses and tracking budgets. But the next wave, which companies like Hiro Finance were exploring, is more forward-looking. It focuses on predicting what could happen next and helping users decide what actions to take, rather than just showing past financial activity.
Meanwhile, the latest move is not so surprising, as the ChatGPT maker has recently been on an aggressive series of acquisitions across sectors, including finance, healthcare, and developer tools. For example, before acquiring Hiro Finance, the AI giant had already picked up AI finance startup Roi in 2025, which was shut down after the deal as its expertise was absorbed into the company’s ecosystem.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
