December 2, 2025 — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly feeling the pressure as competition in the artificial intelligence space intensifies. On Monday, Altman sent a memo to staff outlining a “code red” effort to prioritize and improve ChatGPT, according to multiple reports.
The memo revealed that OpenAI will scale back investments in areas like health, shopping, and advertising to focus on enhancing its flagship AI chatbot. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
“Our focus now is to keep making ChatGPT more capable, continue growing, and expand access around the world — while making it feel even more intuitive and personal,” wrote Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, in a post on X.
OpenAI currently serves more than 800 million weekly users, but rivals are catching up fast. Google recently launched its Gemini 3 AI model, topping industry benchmarks and earning praise from researchers and users alike. Google reported 650 million monthly active users on its Gemini app and 2 billion monthly users accessing AI Overviews at the top of search results. Altman congratulated Google on the launch, describing Gemini 3 as a “great model.”
Meanwhile, Anthropic has rapidly grown its enterprise client base from fewer than 1,000 two years ago to over 300,000 businesses, with large accounts generating more than $100,000 in annual revenue.
Since its launch as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, OpenAI has transformed into one of the fastest-growing commercial AI entities worldwide. Following ChatGPT’s launch three years ago, the company’s valuation has surged to $500 billion, and it has committed over $1.4 trillion in infrastructure projects globally.
Despite concerns over the scale of these investments, Altman has assured stakeholders that OpenAI is on track to exceed $20 billion in annualized revenue this year, with ambitions to reach hundreds of billions by 2030.
Altman emphasized in a post on X in November that building large infrastructure takes time and requires early investment. “This is the bet we are making, and given our vantage point, we feel good about it,” he said.
With rivals like Google Gemini 3 and Anthropic gaining traction, OpenAI’s “code red” signals a renewed urgency to maintain its leadership in the global AI race.
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