OpenAI is betting on new artificial intelligence products, its own data centers and a partnership with Apple to accelerate the growth of its service’s user base. Next year, the ChatGPT developer intends to expand its audience reach to 1 billion people.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman / Image source: OpenAI Forum
Two years after the launch of ChatGPT, the number of weekly active users of the service has grown to 250 million people. Further expansion is planned through the launch of so-called AI agents, its own search engine based on neural networks and the integration of the ChatGPT AI bot with Apple devices.
«In 2025, we will be a self-sustaining research laboratory serving millions of people, hopefully billions of consumers around the world,” Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s chief financial officer, told the Financial Times.
The goal of significantly expanding its user base comes as the nine-year-old startup transitions into a global tech giant and prepares for what OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman calls the “age of intelligence.”
In October of this year, OpenAI held another round of financing, within which it managed to attract more than $6 billion in investments. Due to this, the company’s market value increased to $150 billion, which is the best result among all Silicon Valley startups. Against this backdrop, Friar said OpenAI will continue to raise “more money,” meaning both equity and debt capital. “In 74 days, we put $10 billion on the balance sheet. So this was my way of saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to do something too. We’re in a growth phase and we should continue to invest. We need to be at the forefront of language models. It’s expensive,” said Friar, who joined OpenAI in June this year.
OpenAI Vice President of Global Affairs Chris Lehane said that to achieve its goals, OpenAI plans to invest in the creation of several clusters of data centers in a number of cities in the Midwest and Southwest of the United States. The move to build its own infrastructure to power AI algorithms is part of a similar strategy among OpenAI’s big tech rivals, such as Google and Amazon. Lehane noted that “chips, data and energy” are the critical resources needed to make progress in the AI race.
Image source: starline/freepik.com
In the 12 months since Altman was first ousted and then reinstated as CEO, OpenAI has transformed at a rapid pace. The company added its first financial and product managers, and the number of employees increased 5 times to more than 2,000 people. Against this backdrop, OpenAI embarked on a difficult transition from a non-profit to a for-profit business model.
During the year, several executives and lead developers left OpenAI, but they were replaced by new people, many of whom have experience in creating and monetizing consumer products. This is also why the company can no longer focus only on long-term research. It needs to achieve short-term product goals as the focus of its business model has shifted to increasing the number of revenue-generating products to keep it ahead of rising costs.
According to informed sources, OpenAI spends more than $5 billion a year and the company is “close to breakeven.” The new hires say they remain driven by OpenAI’s “mission” to create and distribute AI algorithms in the long term, but they also have a goal of deploying truly useful neural network-based tools in the near term.
The launch of AI agents, chatbot-like tools that help with online tasks such as gathering information and booking flights and shopping, will be a key focus for the company in 2025, Friar said. “Agent should be the word of the year. This could be a researcher, a useful assistant for ordinary people, working moms like me. In 2025, we will see the emergence of the first very successful agents who will help people in their daily lives,” Friar said.
Despite the expected success of AI agents, the launch of ChatGPT on billions of Apple devices (the AI bot has already begun to be integrated in the US) is critical to the significant growth of OpenAI’s user base. One of the company’s venture investors noted that thanks to this partnership, the goal of 1 billion users can be quickly achieved. “OpenAI today already has several hundred million active users without spending on marketing. Apple has 2 billion iPhones worldwide, and we want to release a new smartphone with artificial intelligence. The path to getting 1 billion users with ChatGPT in your pocket is not that far-fetched. If you reach this threshold, you will compete with Google and Facebook✴,” the source quotes the investor as saying.