As OpenAI faces increasing pressure from rival Anthropic’s improved coding tools, CEO Sam Altman told employees and investors that the company is feeling the momentum, too.
Altman told OpenAI employees on Friday that ChatGPT, the company’s popular artificial intelligence chatbot, is “back to more than 10% monthly growth,” according to an internal Slack message seen by CNBC. OpenAI is also preparing to unveil “a modern chat model” this week, Altman said.
More than 800 million people use ChatGPT every week, but Google and Anthropic are on the rise. OpenAI declared a “code red” in December to improve ChatGPT and temporarily halted several projects to focus on that effort.
In a message Friday, Altman said OpenAI’s coding product Codex has grown about 50% from a week ago. Codex competes directly with Anthropic’s Claude Code, which saw a wave of adoption last year.
Last week, OpenAI released a new Codex model, GPT‑5.3-Codex, and a standalone app for users with the following features: apple computer. In an internal message, Altman said Codex’s growth has been “insane.”
“This has been a great week,” Altman wrote.
It was also a contentious week.
Altman and other executives responded on social media to a swipe from Anthropic, which ran a Super Bowl ad mocking OpenAI’s decision to run ads within ChatGPT. In a post on X, Altman said the commercial was “deceptive” and that OpenAI “certainly would not advertise in the manner Anthropic portrays.”
OpenAI will officially begin testing ads within ChatGPT on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to protect confidentiality. The company said last month that ads will be clearly labeled, appear at the bottom of chatbot answers, and have no impact on ChatGPT answers.
Over the long term, OpenAI expects advertising to account for less than half of its revenue. The digital advertising market has long been dominated by Google and Meta. Amazon It has become a bigger player in recent years.
Message to investors
On February 3, 2025, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended an event to promote AI for business.
Kim Kyung Hoon | Reuters
Altman and Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar are pitching the company’s growth story to investors as OpenAI seeks to close a funding round that could reach $100 billion, people told CNBC.
In the private meeting, executives emphasized OpenAI’s strengths for consumers, business growth and access to computing, said the people, who requested anonymity because the talks are private.
OpenAI has been distributing charts as part of the discussion. One graph, based on internal data, shows Codex eating into Claude Code’s market share, according to a screenshot seen by CNBC.
OpenAI expects funding negotiations to intensify over the next two weeks, one of the people said. OpenAI closed a $41 billion round in March, which included $30 billion from SoftBank and $11 billion from other investors.
As previously reported by CNBC, the current funding round could be completed in two parts. The first is not just the capital of Microsoft and Nvidia; Amazonis in talks to invest up to $50 billion in the company. Contributions from participants such as SoftBank, which is considering an additional $30 billion, are likely to continue.
Round details are fluid and subject to change.
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