By declaring a “code red”, Sam Altman has just suspended a large part of the company’s projects (Sora, Pulse, etc.) to concentrate his teams for 8 weeks on a single objective: the improvement of ChatGPT.
This decision in favor of the product, in the face of the quest for artificial general intelligence, gives the hand to Fidji Simo, who since his arrival at OpenAI has strived to strengthen ChatGPT, better highlight its functionalities and increase its use.
The competitive context further increases the pressure. Google is making rapid progress with Gemini 3 and its Nano Banana Pro image generator. The group has also consolidated its presence on mobile, a decisive area of use. For their part, Anthropic asserts itself among companies, benefiting from a reputation for reliability and stability and Mistral benefits from political support which fuels European ambition in AI. The challenge for Sam Altman is that ChatGPT remains the market benchmark. He also affirms that the next decisive step will be played against Apple, believing that future uses of AI will require redesigned devices, an allusion to the project with Jonathan Ive.
In the background, the financial stakes are considerable. OpenAI has signed massive infrastructure commitments, up to $1.4 trillion over time. Internal forecasts are for 10 billion in revenue this year, 20 billion next year and 35 billion in 2027. These figures are based on the assumption that ChatGPT will remain the dominant interface for consumer AI. A slowdown in growth would create uncertainty over the funding trajectory and OpenAI’s ability to sustain its pace of development.
OpenAI plans to release a new model expected in January, which should bring improvements in images, speed and personality, a sinequanone condition to close the Red Code phase.
