OpenAI Surpasses 400 Million Users in Competitive AI Scenario

The landscape of the AI industry remains fiercely competitive, yet OpenAI continues to demonstrate resilience and growth. Recently, it was reported that OpenAI now has 400 million weekly active users as of February, reflecting a substantial 33% increase in just under three months.

Brad Lightcap, the chief operating officer of OpenAI, confirmed these latest figures during an interview with CNBC. This update marks a swift rise from the 300 million weekly users that were confirmed in December.

OpenAI is facing competition from several players, particularly from a Chinese startup named DeepSeek. This company offers AI services that leverage open-source models and are touted to have comparable capabilities. However, Lightcap mentioned that the growth of ChatGPT, OpenAI's flagship product, is a “natural progression” as it adds new features and as more users become acquainted with the service.

Even before the entrance of DeepSeek, OpenAI was contending with established brands, including tech giants like Google, which is developing its own Gemini language model series. Despite the competition, OpenAI draws strength from a dedicated user base and has successfully formed partnerships in the enterprise sector.

Lightcap noted that the enterprise segment of the company has seen a remarkable increase since September 2024, doubling its paying customers to 2 million. He pointed out that employees often advocate for ChatGPT to be adopted by their organizations after utilizing it personally, with notable clients including Uber, Morgan Stanley, Moderna, and T-Mobile.

According to Lightcap, there are multiple advantages stemming from user familiarity with the product, which fosters organic consumer adoption and boosts overall growth.

Developer engagement has also surged, doubling within the last six months. Usage of the o3 reasoning model has reportedly quadrupled, as developers leverage available code and models to create unique products and services.

In light of the emerging competition, Lightcap expressed a positive outlook on DeepSeek's entry into the market. He emphasized that its emergence highlights the growing significance of AI technology in everyday life.

DeepSeek’s launch has led to fluctuations in stock valuations across the industry. Reports have also emerged suggesting that DeepSeek used an illicit technique known as distillation to extract valuable data from OpenAI to refine its own models.

Despite the tumultuous environment caused by DeepSeek’s introduction, OpenAI's user base remains robust. Data from late January indicated that while DeepSeek achieved peak daily visits of 49 million, ChatGPT still dominated the market with an impressive 139.3 million daily visits during the same period.

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, acknowledged in a recent Reddit AMA session that the company had underperformed regarding open-source development. Nevertheless, he clarified that this issue is not currently the company's primary focus. While ChatGPT began as an open-source research project, it has become progressively more proprietary over time. Altman, along with other executives, hinted at plans to potentially make older AI models available as open source in the future.

AI, competition, growth