- Hiro Finance, which helped manage over $1B in assets, is shutting down on April 20 as it joins OpenAI’s growing portfolio.
- Existing users have until May 13, 2026 to export their data before it is permanently deleted from servers.
- The acquisition signals OpenAI’s ambition to compete directly with traditional financial advisors and robo-advisors through ChatGPT.
On April 13, 2026, Ethan Bloch, founder of Hiro Finance, announced that his personal finance startup is joining OpenAI, bringing the AI personal CFO vision to the ChatGPT maker’s ecosystem.
According to a post on LinkedIn, Bloch stated that getting to know the OpenAI team made it clear that joining forces would provide the opportunity to pursue their mission at a much larger scale. The announcement marks the end of Hiro as a standalone product, with the service stopping on April 20 and all user data deleted from servers by May 13.
The company helped clients plan for and manage more than $1 billion in assets since launching, according to Bloch, who described the acquisition as a natural progression for a project built around the idea that “for decades, personalized financial guidance has been too expensive, too generic, or too hard to access.” OpenAI’s scaling capabilities and existing infrastructure could address those limitations directly, something independent startups struggle to replicate without significant capital infusion.
The Acquisition and What Happens Next
Hiro will stop accepting new signups immediately, with existing users given until May 13, 2026 to export their data from settings. The shutdown timeline provides roughly a week of product functionality after the announcement, meaning users who didn’t see the news immediately may find themselves locked out before having a chance to retrieve their financial planning information. Bloch apologized to users in his announcement, stating that “building for you was a privilege” while hoping to “earn the chance to serve you again through what we build next at OpenAI.”
Rex Salisbury, a venture capitalist and early supporter, confirmed the acquisition on LinkedIn, calling it a significant move for OpenAI’s financial services ambitions. The Hiro team, including co-founder Rushabh Doshi, also posted about the transition, noting that the original vision of building an AI-powered personal CFO remains intact even as the company changes hands. Investors including Ribbit, General Catalyst, and Restive supported the startup through its journey, though Bloch acknowledged the ending came “sooner than any of us expected.”
The Broader Implications for AI Financial Planning
Bloch’s journey in fintech spans multiple companies, including Digit, which he built into a service that helped millions of Americans save over $9 billion before being acquired by Oportun for $238 million in 2021. The pattern suggests OpenAI isn’t just acquiring talent and technology but also a founder with a track record of building sustainable financial products. Whether the company plans to integrate Hiro’s capabilities directly into ChatGPT or develop separate financial planning tools remains unclear, though the mention of pursuing the vision “at a much larger scale” suggests ambitions beyond what a startup could fund independently.
The acquisition reflects a broader trend where AI companies seek to embed themselves in everyday financial decisions rather than remaining peripheral tools. ChatGPT already handles a growing range of planning and analysis tasks, and adding structured financial guidance backed by real asset management experience could position OpenAI as a direct competitor to traditional financial advisors and robo-advisors alike.
Ethan Bloch built an AI personal CFO, helped manage over a billion dollars in assets, and then sold to OpenAI less than two years after launch. Meanwhile, most of us are still trying to figure out why our bank app crashes when we try to check our balance. The startup ecosystem sometimes produces outcomes that actually justify the hype, and this looks like one of them—assuming OpenAI doesn’t turn the technology into a premium tier that costs more than most people’s actual financial advisor.
The quick shutdown date raises questions about how much the team really thought through the transition for users. A week between announcement and product termination isn’t exactly a generous runway for people who trusted the service with their financial planning. Hopefully nobody had important data in there they forgot to export, because “we got acquired by OpenAI” isn’t much of an excuse when your spreadsheets disappear. To be fair, the team’s probably busy figuring out how to make ChatGPT give investment advice without accidentally suggesting people put their savings into cryptocurrency based on whatever the training data included.
OpenAI’s Growing Portfolio
The acquisition adds to OpenAI’s expanding roster of acquisitions and product integrations, following a pattern of incorporating specialized teams rather than building everything from scratch. For OpenAI, adding experienced fintech operators who understand both consumer behavior and financial regulation could accelerate efforts to make ChatGPT a legitimate alternative to traditional planning tools.
The broader message for the fintech industry seems to be that if you’re building AI-powered services in spaces where OpenAI might eventually compete, either move very fast or find your niche quickly. Bloch reportedly told users he hopes to serve them again through what the team builds next at OpenAI, suggesting the technology and possibly some user relationships might resurface in a different form.