Brilliant Rui Xin (02687.HK): The Second Half of AI, Vertical Domains Reign Supreme | OpenAI's Acquisition of Chalkie Reflects the Golden Age of Deep Vertical Cultivators

In April 2026, a key move by OpenAI, the global AI giant, shook the industry: the acquisition of Chalkie, an AI educational lesson preparation tool. This was not an incidental strategy but an inevitable shift in the global AI industry’s development—homogeneous competition among general large models is becoming increasingly fierce, and technological gaps are narrowing continuously. The era of solely competing on parameter scale and computing power is gradually coming to an end.The key to the second half of AI development has long shifted to deep implementation and value realization in vertical domains.Among many vertical fields, the knowledge domain, especially the education sector, is becoming a core battleground for global tech giants to invest in due to its massive market size, rigid demand cycles, and extremely high user stickiness.

I. Why education? Why now?

The answer lies in two sets of data. According to industry statistics, by 2035, the global education technology market size will surge from the current 285 billion USD to 650 billion USD, with AI penetration rates climbing from less than 35% to 70%. As technological gaps are quickly bridged, what will define the industry landscape of the next decade is no longer the amount of parameters, but who can first establish roots in real classrooms.

OpenAI's acquisition of Chalkie is the ultimate manifestation of this logic. Founded in 2025, Chalkie specializes in AI-powered lesson planning and curriculum generation, covering a cumulative total of 10 million students. OpenAI chose to acquire rather than build from scratch, which is not just a capital operation but also a precise 'scenario enhancement'—building a user system of millions of teachers, accumulating compliant and high-quality teaching data, and adapting to complex teaching workflows, none of which can be achieved quickly by merely throwing computational power or stacking parameters. What Chalkie brings is verified paying B-end clients, a strictly closed-loop private knowledge system, and a standardized interactive interface rooted in real teaching scenarios.This marks the empowerment of AI in educational scenarios evolving from a 'supportive plugin' tool attribute to a 'core infrastructure' reshaping education.

II. Technology can be copied easily, but scenarios are hard to cultivate deeply—a Chinese reflection under global consensus.

Many once worried that the entry of top-tier companies with billions of capital and cutting-edge algorithms would create a 'dimensional strike' against niche enterprises. However, the characteristics of the education industry are quite the opposite: it has strong professionalism, compliance requirements, and scenario specificity. Advanced algorithms are merely an entry ticket; the real deciding factor lies in who can deeply align with national policy guidance, meet educational norms, adapt to university training rhythms, satisfy stringent data security demands, and match societal employment needs. From breaking down knowledge points in one class to constructing entire subject knowledge graphs, from cultivating single skills to nurturing talent, these 'deep water zone' issues embedded in education cannot be truly solved by general large models trained solely on public corpora.

Chalkie’s core value lies not only in 'one-click lesson plan generation,' but in its accumulation of a curriculum system aligned with educational standards and real learning analytics data—data that is highly professional, strongly business-closed-looped, and highly sensitive in terms of privacy. This type of data cannot be obtained through public channels and can only be accumulated via long-term cultivation and compliant operations. This is precisely the deepest moat in AI within the education field:Algorithms can be optimized and iterated, but the accumulation of knowledge assets, scenario experience, and understanding have no shortcuts.

OpenAI's acquisition of ChalkieThis marks a pivotal event in the global AI industry's transition from the "technological first half" to the "scenario-based second half", and also serves as a strong positive signal for domestic companies of a similar nature.It announces to the market that the endgame for large models is not about an arms race in cloud parameters, but rather about deep-rooted growth within specific industries.

Amidst the global AI industry’s wave of deep penetration into specialized verticals, we will use localized expertise as our foundation and technological innovation as our engine. By seizing dual opportunities presented by policies and markets, we will continue to lead in the vertical AI track of the knowledge domain, creating long-term and stable value returns for shareholders while stepping into the golden era of deep integration between AI and education.

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