AI Firm CHAI Reports 3X Annual Growth
The AI company CHAI announced it has maintained a 3X annual growth rate over the past three years. The company has reached $68 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and a valuation of $1.4 billion.
- The company, founded by William R.G. Beauchamp, reached 1 million users in early 2022, predating the public releases of both ChatGPT and Character AI. As of mid-2025, it served over 10 million users with a team of just 11 engineers. - CHAI's platform allows developers to submit their own large language models to its ecosystem, a platform it calls "Chaiverse," fostering a competitive environment for AI model development. - The firm's AI models are trained on curated user feedback, which has reportedly led to a 68% higher engagement rate compared to GPT-3.5. By mid-2025, the average session time per user had increased to 90 minutes, surpassing engagement on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. - CHAI has published a paper on its AI safety framework, which focuses on content safeguarding, stability, and operational transparency to mitigate risks and promote ethical use of its chatbot technology. - The platform's growth has not been without controversy; it faced criticism in early 2026 for implementing message limits without warning and was part of a Belgian investigation in 2024 following a user's suicide after extensive interaction with a chatbot on the app. - Total investment in the company has surpassed $55 million, with backers including individual investors like Ken Howery and AI infrastructure companies such as CoreWeave and AMD. - The platform provides users with no-code tools to create and customize their own AI chatbots, which has led to a large library of user-generated characters and what the company calls "user-generated AI" (UGAI).
