Announcing the deal on social media, OpenAI said Torch unifies lab results, medications, and visit recordings, and that integrating the startup’s technology with ChatGPT Health will create new ways for users to understand and manage their health.
CNBC reported that OpenAI purchased Torch for nearly $60 million.
As part of the acquisition, Torch’s team, including Ilya Abyzov, Eugene Huang, James Hamlin, and Ryan Oman, has joined OpenAI, the company said.
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“I can’t imagine a better next chapter than to get now to put our technology and ideas in the hands of the hundreds of millions of people who already use ChatGPT for health questions every week,” Torch CEO Ilya Abyzov wrote in a post on X.
Founded a year ago, Torch set out to build what it described as a “medical memory for AI”, aiming to bring together fragmented health records into a single system that provides broader context and reduces the risk of critical information being overlooked.
The Torch app allows users to consolidate medical data from hospitals, laboratories, wearable devices, and consumer health testing companies into one platform.
The acquisition follows OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT Health last week.
ChatGPT Health links the AI chatbot with users’ medical records and wellness apps to deliver more personalised responses to health-related queries, and the addition of Torch’s technology is expected to strengthen those capabilities.
Abyzov had earlier co-founded another healthcare startup, Forward, a direct-to-consumer primary care company that offered patient consultations through tech-enabled “CarePods”. The company abruptly shut down operations in 2024.
