*OpenAI\u2019s $852 billion valuation is under increasing scrutiny from its own backers as the group switches focus to the enterprise market and tackling competition from Anthropic.<\/p>\n
A recent flurry of deals, initiatives and abandoned projects is designed to reorient the company around a new strategy: defend ChatGPT\u2019s dominance among consumers, while taking on Anthropic in the higher-margin market for corporate AI tools.<\/p>\n
Some OpenAI investors told the FT the changes could leave it vulnerable to Anthropic and a resurgent Google, all while preparing for a blockbuster initial public offering as early as this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have ChatGPT, a 1 billion-user business growing 50-100 per cent a year, what are you doing talking about enterprise and code?\u201d said one early backer of OpenAI. \u201cIt\u2019s a deeply unfocused company.\u201d<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s leadership is bullish, having already successfully repositioned the company multiple times. Chief executive Sam Altman is fresh from securing $122 billion last month from more than 25 blue-chip investors including SoftBank, Amazon, Nvidia, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suggestion that investors are not supportive of our strategy defies the facts,\u201d said Sarah Friar, OpenAI\u2019s chief financial officer. \u201cOur\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009raise, the largest in history, was oversubscribed, completed in record time and backed by a broad set of global investors, reflecting strong conviction in both our direction, current business momentum and long-term value.\u201d<\/p>\n
The runaway success of Anthropic has precipitated a strategic rethink. The Claude-maker\u2019s annualised revenue surged from $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $30 billion at the end of March, driven by demand for its coding tools.<\/p>\n
Anthropic\u2019s business appears to have leapfrogged OpenAI, which hit $25 billion in annualised revenue in February, though the companies use different accounting methods to book revenue, making direct comparison difficult.<\/p>\n
Denise Dresser, OpenAI\u2019s new chief revenue officer, accused Anthropic of overstating their revenue \u201cby roughly $8 billion\u201d by \u201cgrossing up [revenue] share with Amazon and Google\u201d, in a note to staff on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Both companies claim to use standard accounting practices. Anthropic \u201crecognises gross revenue on sales through partners because it is the principal in the transaction and its cloud partners are the distribution channel\u201d, said one person close to the company.<\/p>\n
Dresser acknowledged Anthropic\u2019s \u201ccoding focus gave them an early wedge\u201d in the race for enterprise customers. But, she added, \u201cthe market is ours to win\u201d.<\/p>\n
The two start-ups are both losing billions of dollars each year, spending aggressively on computing power to train and run models.<\/p>\n
One investor who has backed both companies said that in order to underwrite an investment in OpenAI\u2019s recent round, they would have to assume an IPO valuation of $1.2 trillion or more.<\/p>\n
That has become harder to justify given the cheaper proposition of buying into Anthropic, most recently valued at $380 billion. The person added OpenAI risked being left \u201cin no man\u2019s land\u201d.<\/p>\n
Data from secondary marketplaces that trade proxies for both companies\u2019 stock suggests demand is higher for Anthropic, and, for the first time, buyers are placing a premium on the start-up over OpenAI.<\/p>\n
OpenAI still retains a lead among consumer users. Having beaten its rivals to launch ChatGPT in November 2022, it catalysed the creation of a new market for data centre financing, converted into a for-profit enterprise and committed hundreds of billions to secure computing power.<\/p>\n
But Altman issued a \u201ccode red\u201d late last year imploring staff to focus on core business. Last month, Fidji Simo, former Instacart chief and OpenAI\u2019s CEO of applications, who is off on medical leave, urged employees to drop \u201cside quests\u201d.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later the company spent in the \u201clow hundreds of millions of dollars\u201d on tech talk show TBPN. An OpenAI executive said the show was not a side quest because it doesn\u2019t drain computing resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get it frankly, it doesn\u2019t make any sense to me,\u201d said an OpenAI investor of the TBPN acquisition. \u201cIt\u2019s a distraction and it irks me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disney\u2019s planned investment of $1bn evaporated as OpenAI shuttered the video generation service Sora. Microsoft has indicated it will take legal action if OpenAI\u2019s new $50bn partnership with Amazon infringes on its exclusive cloud deal with the company.<\/p>\n
Ambitions around Stargate, OpenAI\u2019s $500bn data centre effort announced in the White House last year, have also shifted. Plans to develop a $30bn data centre in the UK and extend a site in Abilene, Texas, have both been ditched. A $100bn deal with Nvidia has also been substantially pared back.<\/p>\n
Expansion continues in other areas. OpenAI plans to nearly double its headcount to 8,000 by the end of the year, at which point it expects to generate half of its revenue from businesses, up from about 40 per cent today.<\/p>\n
On Monday, OpenAI said it had signed a lease for a new permanent office in London next year, where it wants to form the largest research hub outside the US.<\/p>\n
It also spent last year inking massive deals to secure computing resources \u2014 an area where it has a clear advantage over Anthropic.<\/p>\n
The company told investors last week that it had secured access to 8 gigawatts of computing capacity \u2014 a milestone OpenAI claims that Anthropic will not hit until the end of 2027 \u2014 as it aims to secure 30GW by the end of 2030.<\/p>\n
Anthropic has faced outages and power constraints. Meanwhile, according to a person involved in OpenAI\u2019s infrastructure efforts, \u201ceven if our model is less good, we can just serve it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Anthropic has not shared its plans to add computing power, but chief financial officer Krishna Rao said this month the company would take a \u201cdisciplined approach to scaling infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n
OpenAI is reallocating its own computing resources. As well as dropping Sora, it has also mothballed an \u201cadult\u201d chatbot. Instead, its focus has switched to selling its coding tool, Codex, to businesses.<\/p>\n
Multiple people familiar with the company\u2019s strategy said Codex might eventually take precedence over ChatGPT, as staff prioritise making the software more accessible for non-technical users.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a much higher margin business and moving compute [computing resources] from consumer to enterprise is trivial,\u201d said the person who has worked on OpenAI\u2019s efforts to access computing resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe company was doing too many things, it had too many bets. It\u2019s about refocusing the business around a couple of core bets,\u201d said another major investor in the group. \u201cThat\u2019s it. You can\u2019t as a company compete on 30 different fronts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others see frequent switches of approach as a sign of strategic drift. Jai Das, president of investment firm Sapphire Ventures, described OpenAI as \u201cthe Netscape of AI\u201d, referring to the once dominant internet company before being outstripped by Microsoft and acquired by AOL. Das is not an investor in either OpenAI or Anthropic.<\/p>\n
Friar said the company still had the support of its investors, given that OpenAI just closed the biggest private fundraising of all time.<\/p>\n
The CFO said the $122 billion raising \u201cgives us a lot of flexibility at this moment in time. I view my job as always [to create] max flexibility, max optionality for the company, because then we can make more strategic decisions.\u201d – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n
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