OpenAI bought the makers of a Minecraft clone

OpenAI says it has acquired Global Illumination, a small company based in New York that describes itself as a “digital product company.”

In its announcement, OpenAI didn’t disclose the terms of the acquisition, but said that Global Illumination’s “entire team” has joined the company to work on its “core products,” including ChatGPT. Beyond that, OpenAI didn’t specify what the Global Illumination team would be doing at the company. OpenAI didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

“Global Illumination is a company that has been leveraging AI to build creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences,” OpenAI said in the announcement. “The team previously designed and built products early on at Instagram and Facebook and have also made significant contributions at YouTube, Google, Pixar, Riot Games, and other notable companies.”

Global Illumination’s website is pretty sparse. It has a brief description of the company, lists eight employees, and has a link to a game called Biomes, which is described as an “open source sandbox MMORPG built for the web.” (Graphically, the game has a striking resemblance to Minecraft.)