ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is optimistic about Google‘s recent successes in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In a recent internal memo to colleagues, Altman acknowledged that the AI startup rival’s success could “create some temporary economic headwinds for our company.” However, Altman reassured that OpenAI is “catching up fast” and anticipates emerging as the leader in the AI race. It’s important to note that Altman’s memo was written before Google’s Gemini 3 was released, a model the tech giant has described as its most capable to date. Software developers have reported that the new model performed well on tasks such as automating website and product design and writing code, which is a lucrative revenue stream for OpenAI and its competitors, such as Anthropic.Concerns about OpenAI’s slowing growth arose late this summer. During a recent quarterly earnings call with investors, the company’s CFO, Sarah Friar, confirmed that user engagement with the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT had cooled, despite the company’s otherwise positive financial results.
What Sam Altman said OpenAI employees about the company’s biggest rivals
According to a report by The Information (as seen by The Economic Times), Altman’s memo noted that competitors such as Google and Anthropic are narrowing the gap in the AI race Anthropic’s Claude model generates computer code for various tasks using conversational prompts. Meanwhile, Google has been integrating its Gemini AI chatbot into its search app, productivity tools and other services. However, recently, Claude gained a new challenger from OpenAI with the introduction of Codex.Google also holds an economic advantage. OpenAI’s growth has been rapid and the company now carries a valuation of around $500 billion as a for-profit entity. It is expected to bring in about $13 billion in revenue, but is estimated to burn roughly $100 billion in its push toward superintelligence.With a market value of about $3.5 trillion, Google reported free cash flow of over $70 billion in the past four quarters. A significant portion of this comes from providing cloud services to OpenAI, Anthropic and other competitors.Altman also encouraged OpenAI employees to stay confident and focus on the company’s larger goals.“We have built enough strength as a company to weather great models shipping elsewhere competition… (so), having most of our research team focused on really getting to superintelligence is critically important,” Altman wrote in the internal memo.“It s**ks that we have to do so many hard things at the same time — the best research lab, the best AI infrastructure company, and the best AI platform/product company — but such is our lot in life. And I wouldn’t trade positions with any other company,” Altman added.Recently, OpenAI partnered with Apple’s biggest suuplier Foxconn to design and build AI data-centre components in the US. Under this partnership, OpenAI will help develop future server systems and may purchase Foxconn-produced hardware in the coming days. Altman noted that this collaboration can strengthen American manufacturing infrastructure.Commenting on the partnership, Altman said: “This partnership is a step toward ensuring the core technologies of the AI era are built here [US],” and added that AI infrastructure production presents a “generational opportunity to reindustrialise America.”Foxconn will join OpenAI’s supply chain to manufacture AI-related hardware in a more American way. The company, known for iPhone assembly, also manufactures AI servers and supplies components to Nvidia.Commenting on the partnership, Foxconn chairman Young Liu said that the company “is uniquely positioned to support OpenAI’s mission with trusted, scalable infrastructure.”
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