OpenAI boasts enterprise win days after internal ‘code red’ on Google threat

Summary

OpenAI released new data Monday showing enterprise usage of its AI tools has surged dramatically over the past year, with ChatGPT message volume growing 8x since November 2024 and workers reporting they’re saving up to an hour daily. The findings arrive a week after CEO Sam Altman sent an internal “code red” memo about the competitive threat of Google. The timing underscores OpenAI’s push to reframe its position as the enterprise AI leader, even as it faces mounting pressures. While close to 36% of U.S. businesses are ChatGPT Enterprise customers compared to 14.3% for Anthropic, per Ramp AI Index, the majority of OpenAI’s revenue still comes from consumer subscriptions — a base that’s being threatened by Google’s Gemini. OpenAI also must compete against rival AI firm Anthropic — whose revenue comes mainly from B2B sales – and, increasingly, open-weight model providers for enterprise customers. The AI giant has committed $1.4 trillion to infrastructure commitments over the next few years, making enterprise growth essential to its business model. “If you think about it from an economic growth perspective, consumers really matter,” Ronnie Chatterji, OpenAI’s chief economist, said during a briefing. “But when you look at historically transformative technologies like the steam engine, it’s when firms adopt and scale these technologies that you really see the biggest economic benefits.” OpenAI’s new findings suggest that adoption among larger enterprises is not only growing but becoming more integrated into workflows. Employees aren’t only sending more messages — organizations using OpenAI’s API (its developer interface) are consuming 320 times more “reasoning tokens” than they were a year ago, suggesting companies are using AI for more complex problem-solving. That, or they are experimenting heavily with the new tech and burning through tokens, without necessarily getting long-term value. That increase in reasoning tokens, which correlates with increased energy usage, co...