OpenAI Strengthens ChatGPT Health Plans With Torch Acquisition
OpenAI has acquired Torch, a tiny healthcare startup that’s barely one year old, for a reported $100 million in equity.
The move comes days after OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Health. With more than 40 million users already turning to ChatGPT daily for health questions, this acquisition makes perfect sense.
On X, OpenAI said, “We’ve acquired Torch, a healthcare startup that unifies lab results, medications, and visit recordings. Bringing this together with ChatGPT Health opens up a new way to understand and manage your health.”
Tiny team
Torch created what they call a “unified medical memory for AI” that solves healthcare’s biggest nightmare – scattered patient data. Picture this: your lab results are with one provider, your prescriptions with another, your fitness data on your phone, and your genetic testing with companies like 23andMe.
Its technology aggregates all this fragmented information from hospitals, labs, wearables, and consumer testing companies into one AI-readable system. The four-person team, led by co-founders Ilya Abyzov and Eugene Huang, built something that helps AI “connect the dots” across a user’s entire health history.
The founders previously worked at Forward Health, the AI-powered medical company that spectacularly collapsed in late 2024 after raising over $400 million. Now they’re getting a second chance at healthcare disruption with the world’s most powerful AI company backing them.
The war for healthcare dominance
AI giants are racing to dominate healthcare, and the competition is getting fierce. OpenAI’s move comes just after rival Anthropic launched Claude for Healthcare, targeting both startups and large enterprises looking to integrate AI deeper into their operations.
OpenAI revealed that one in four of ChatGPT’s 800 million regular users submits healthcare-related prompts every week. That’s a useful 200 million people already using AI for health guidance – and they’re just getting started.
OpenAI spent a two-year period working with over 260 physicians to develop ChatGPT Health, showing this isn’t a rushed decision but a carefully planned healthcare takeover. The Torch acquisition seems to give them the missing piece: technology that can safely connect AI systems with personal health records.
Your health data management
OpenAI is betting that combining Torch’s unified data platform with ChatGPT Health will “open up a new way to understand and manage your health.” Instead of juggling multiple apps and scattered medical records, users could soon have one AI assistant that knows their complete health story.
What this represents is a fundamental shift from general-purpose chatbots toward specialized AI tools that work with structured, user-authorized data. The acquisition also signals OpenAI’s strategy of using equity rather than cash for deals, leveraging their rising private valuation as currency.
OpenAI is taking an unusually direct route to see how well its AI can handle real jobs.
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