The team behind Nerve, a small enterprise AI startup that pitched itself as an "AI chief of staff," is joining OpenAI. Co-founder Tanooj Luthra announced the move on LinkedIn on February 17, saying the Nerve product will sunset in 30 days. Customer billing is already suspended, and all data will be deleted after the transition window.
Nerve connected to tools like Slack, Google Drive, Jira, and email, letting workers search and act on company data through a chat interface. The team will now apply that same enterprise search thinking to ChatGPT. Luthra framed it as a scale play: OpenAI is "quickly becoming the default way many people find and use information," he wrote, and Nerve wants to help build that out. Financial terms were not disclosed, and it's unclear whether this qualifies as a formal acquisition or a straightforward talent deal.
The timing is worth flagging. OpenAI has been on an acquisition spree over the past year, picking up startups like io (Jony Ive's hardware venture, for over $6 billion), Statsig ($1.1 billion), and most recently health records startup Torch. The Nerve deal is far smaller, but it fits a pattern: OpenAI is assembling enterprise search and agent capabilities piece by piece. Days before the Nerve announcement, Sam Altman revealed he'd hired Peter Steinberger, creator of the popular open-source framework OpenClaw, to lead work on personal agents.
Nerve was co-founded by Luthra and CEO Aziz Pabani, both ex-Brex. Luthra previously built Elph, a Y Combinator startup that Brex acquired. Existing Nerve customers have 30 days to export anything they need.
Bottom Line
Nerve's enterprise search team joins OpenAI to scale ChatGPT's search capabilities, with the Nerve product shutting down in 30 days and all customer data slated for deletion.
Quick Facts
- Announced February 17, 2026 via LinkedIn
- Nerve product sunsets in 30 days; billing suspended immediately
- Financial terms undisclosed
- Co-founders: Tanooj Luthra (CTO) and Aziz Pabani (CEO), both ex-Brex
- Team will focus on building search for ChatGPT
