In addition to chatter about Gemini on social media, Google is quickly catching up to ChatGPT in terms of user numbers. ChatGPT has over 800 million weekly users. in accordance with OpenAI, and the Google Gemini app has grew up from 450 million monthly active users in July to 650 million in October, according to Business Insider.
Financial stakes are high
Not everyone considers OpenAI's Code Red to be a real concern. Reuters columnist Robert Cyran wrote On Tuesday, OpenAI's announcement added to “the impression that OpenAI is trying to do too much at once with a technology that still requires a lot of development and funding.” On the same day that Altman's note was distributed, OpenAI announced ownership interest in venture capital firm Thrive Capital and cooperation with Accenture. “The only thing more important than a company’s attention deficit is its appetite for capital,” Cyran wrote.
In fact, OpenAI faces an unusual competitive disadvantage: Unlike Google, which subsidizes its AI projects with revenue from search advertising, OpenAI doesn't make a profit and relies on fundraising to survive. The company, now valued at about $500 billion, has made more than $1 trillion in financial commitments to cloud computing providers and chip makers that provide the computing power needed to train and run its artificial intelligence models, according to The Information.
But the tech industry never stands still, and things can change quickly. Altman's note also reportedly states that OpenAI plans to release a new simulated reasoning model it could surpass Gemini 3 in internal estimates next week. In the AI space, the cycle of excellence is expected to continue as long as the money keeps flowing.
