Sam Altman touts ChatGPT's reacceleration as OpenAI closes in on $100 billion funding

In the face of escalating competition from Anthropic's advanced coding solutions, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman has reassured employees and investors of the company's momentum. In an internal message shared on Friday, Altman revealed that ChatGPT, the widely-used artificial intelligence chatbot, has regained a remarkable growth rate, exceeding 10% monthly. This comes as OpenAI gears up to unveil an updated Chat model this week. With over 800 million weekly users, ChatGPT remains a significant player in the AI landscape, although Google and Anthropic are gaining traction. In December, OpenAI declared a 'code red' to enhance ChatGPT, temporarily halting various projects to focus on this initiative. Altman also shared that the company's coding tool, Codex, has seen a substantial surge, growing by about 50% in just a week, positioning it directly against Anthropic's Claude Code, which has gained popularity over the past year. Last week, OpenAI rolled out a new version of Codex, named GPT-5.3-Codex, along with a standalone application for Apple users. Altman described the growth of Codex as 'insane,' indicating a productive week for the company. However, it was not without its challenges; Altman and senior executives found themselves responding to criticisms from Anthropic, which aired Super Bowl advertisements mocking OpenAI's advertising strategies within ChatGPT. In a post on X, Altman labeled these ads as 'deceptive,' clarifying that OpenAI would never implement advertisements in the manner depicted by Anthropic. Starting Monday, OpenAI plans to begin testing advertising in ChatGPT, as revealed by a source familiar with the situation. These ads are set to be clearly marked, positioned at the bottom of the chatbot's responses, and are designed not to affect the chatbot's output. OpenAI anticipates that ads will contribute to less than half of its long-term revenue. The digital advertising sector has historically been dominated by giants like Google and Meta, with Amazon increasingly becoming a formidable competitor. Altman, alongside CFO Sarah Friar, has been presenting OpenAI's growth narrative to investors while preparing for a potential $100 billion fundraising round. In private discussions, they highlighted the company's consumer appeal, expanding enterprise business, and significant computational access. OpenAI has circulated data charts indicating that Codex is beginning to capture market share from Claude Code. As fundraising efforts are expected to intensify over the next two weeks, OpenAI has already secured a $41 billion round in March, which included a substantial investment from SoftBank. The current funding round may unfold in two phases, with projections of capital contributions from Microsoft and Nvidia, alongside Amazon, which is considering a $50 billion investment. Additional involvement from investors like SoftBank is also anticipated, though the specifics remain subject to change.