OpenAI emergency brake: cutting "side missions", all in on programming and enterprise market

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OpenAI is brewing a major strategic shift: fully scaling back its previous "do everything" multi-pronged approach, and focusing core resources on programming tools and the enterprise market. Behind this change is the dual pressure of rival Anthropic’s strong rise in the enterprise AI space and the imminent IPO window.

According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s Applications CEO Fidji Simo informed employees of this direction at an all-hands meeting last week, stating that top executives including CEO Sam Altman and Chief Scientist Mark Chen are actively evaluating which businesses will be deprioritized, with related decisions to be communicated in the coming weeks.

Simo directly described Anthropic’s success as a "warning signal" for OpenAI, demanding the company reclaim its dominance over software developers and enterprise clients. The direct implication for the market is: high-profile products like the Sora video generator, the Atlas browser, and ChatGPT e-commerce features will be marginalized, and resources will shift toward programming and enterprise services with clearer monetization paths.

Both companies are preparing to go public. According to a previous report by The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI internally suggested finishing an IPO as soon as Q4 this year. The approaching timeline has intensified the competition, adding urgency to OpenAI’s strategic contraction.

The Price of "Doing Everything": Scattered Focus, Misallocation of Resources

Last year, OpenAI launched a slew of new products, including the Sora video generator, Atlas browser, new hardware devices, and ChatGPT e-commerce features. Sam Altman once likened this approach to "betting on a series of startups within OpenAI," a move that to some extent fortified the company’s image as an AI-era pioneer.

However, several current and former employees stated that this model led to an unclear strategic direction and a lack of internal consensus on resource allocation. This issue is especially pronounced in cutting-edge AI labs where computing power is highly scarce—teams often have resources reallocated at the last minute, with increasingly complex organizational structures as a result.

Take the Sora team, for example. Although Sora is one of the company's most high-profile consumer products, its team is under the research division rather than product lines. OpenAI launched Sora as a standalone app last September, bundled with TikTok-like social features, at one point topping the free Apple App Store chart, but usage quickly leveled out. Currently, the company is considering integrating video generation back into the main ChatGPT app.

Anthropic's Aggressive Advance, OpenAI's Programming Market Eroded

The rise of Anthropic is the immediate trigger for this strategic shift.

With products like Claude Code and Cowork, Anthropic has become a dominant enterprise AI vendor. These AI agent products, capable of autonomously completing complex tasks, quickly gained popularity in Silicon Valley and triggered stock market waves globally last month.

Unlike OpenAI’s multi-track approach, Anthropic has maintained highly focused product strategy, deeply cultivating the enterprise and programming markets, without entering the image or video generation fields.

Last fall, Anthropic launched an upgraded Claude Code based on more advanced models, and many programmers intensely tested its features during the holidays—this "Claude bender" frenzy made it a mainstream software engineering tool in tech companies virtually overnight.

Refocusing: Accelerating Programming, Cracking the Enterprise Market

Under pressure, OpenAI has begun its counterattack.

Last month, the company released a new version of the Codex app and the GPT 5.4 model optimized for professional work scenarios. According to Simo’s posts on X, Codex now has more than two million weekly active users—a nearly fourfold increase since the start of the year.

In the enterprise market, OpenAI is pushing its engineers to embed deeply with consulting firms and business partners to accelerate AI deployment across industries. Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s decision to classify Anthropic as a supply chain risk made some enterprise clients more cautious in purchasing Anthropic’s technology—Anthropic has filed a lawsuit regarding this decision.

Last August, Sam Altman brought in Simo, giving her broad responsibilities including both product and finance. She is now driving a deep integration of research and product teams, and plans to organize long-term company investments—including hardware—around improving user productivity.

IPO Expectations Near, Strategic Leeway Shrinks

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have taken steps toward IPOs, but neither has publicly disclosed specific timelines.

According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI internally discussed launching its IPO as early as Q4 this year.

The pressure of going public has ratcheted up the intensity of the competition. For cutting-edge AI firms that still need ongoing financing to expand computing power, convincing public investors of a clear business model and path to profitability is key to securing capital. At the all-hands meeting, Simo stated bluntly: "Our current state feels like wartime."

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