When you have new tech that will “capture the light cone of all future value” [1] you’ll attract a herd of followers, and that’s where the outsized ROI comes from. The gain is from collecting and arbitraging disciples. The product doesn’t necessarily need to lead those disciples to a better place.
Some people might argue that it is a hollow phrase to make OpenAI sound more important than it is. ;-)
On the other hand: since we are, of course, nearing the AI singularity, we are in the situation where we cannot even predict what will have value in the coming future - will it be money, or will it be some completely alien concept that no one today can even imagine? Luckily, OpenAI is already prepared for this kind of future by its capability to capture the light cone of value.
It's any value that's created at some point, and any value that will ever be created from that point onwards. A light cone starts at a point in space and time, and covers everything in space-time that point could causally interact with; speed of light is the speed of causality, hence "light cone".
Definition of "value" is the usual fuzzy one - both money/wealth and all kinds of things humans value that are not expressed in dollars.
[1] sama on chatgpt https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/18/sam-altmans-leap-of-faith/...