OpenAI Records a 33% User Base Growth Despite DeepSeek’s Disruption
OpenAI’s user base has grown by 33% since December 2024, CNBC has reported. The AI startup experienced this growth irrespective of the market disruption that Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caused last month. OpenAI’s user growth is evidenced by the increase in the number of weekly active users.
Speaking to CNBC, OpenAI’s CFO Brad Lightcap, the US-based tech company now has 400 million weekly users, up from 300 million in December
Organic Growth
OpenAI says that its main product, ChatGPT, continues to progress naturally as more people familiarize themselves with it and appreciate its usefulness.
“People hear about it through word of mouth. They see the utility of it. They see their friends using it. There’s an overall effect of people really wanting these tools, and seeing that these tools are really valuable,” Lightcap said.
Another important growth factor is developer traffic, which the tech giant says has doubled over the last 6 months. Developers work with OpenAI to integrate the reasoning model o3 into their apps. OpenAI CFO likens this to cloud services pioneered by Amazon’s Web Services two decades ago.
“There’s a buying cycle there, and a learning process that goes into scaling an enterprise business. AI is going to be like cloud services. It’s going to be something that you can’t run a business that ultimately is not really running on these very powerful models underneath the surface,” Lightcap said.
The Power of Enterprise
OpenAI is also experiencing an overflow of clients as its enterprise business continues to grow. Currently, the company has 2 million paying enterprise clients. This is about double the number of subscriptions it had in September 2024. Lightcap attributed the uptake of enterprise accounts by businesses to the fact that employees recommend ChatGPT to their companies after using it personally.
“We get a lot of benefits, and a tail wind from the organic consumer adoption where people already have familiarity with the product. There’s really healthy growth, on a different curve,” Lightcap added.
The AI startup’s largest enterprise clients include T-Mobile, Morgan Stanley, Uber, and Moderna. The fact that enterprises are always building processes is an advantage for the AI company.
OpenAI vs DeepSeek competition
OpenAI’s growth has not been without challenges. The tech company faces stiff competition from Chinese AI firm DeepSeek. Last month, DeepSeek unveiled the R1 AI model that shook the tech market. Investors were afraid that it could affect the future profitability and dominance of US AI firms. DeepSeek made waves across the tech market, wiping close to $600 billion off Nvidia’s market value.
“DeepSeek is a testament to how much AI has entered the public consciousness in the mainstream, it would have been unfathomable two years ago. It’s a moment that shows how powerful these models are and how much people really care,” Lightcap said.
But OpenAI says the competition posed by DeepSeek has not changed OpenAI’s thoughts about open source AI, its mega-spending plans, and it’s the roadmap for its products. OpenAI accused DeepSeek of harvesting its models inappropriately, a technique that is known as distillation.
Tussle with Elon Musk
Even with this growth, OpenAI continues to deal with a legal battle that threatens its existence. As the AI startup attempted to restructure and convert into a for-profit entity, its co-founder, Elon Musk sued OpenAI for breach of contract.
Earlier this month, Musk and a team of investors offered to purchase OpenAI’s assets for $97.4 billion. In response, OpenAI’s attorney informed Musk’s lawyer that the nonprofit’s board had determined that Musk’s publicized bid wasn’t a bid at all.
“The numbers tell the story. We try to be very transparent about where we stand on all of this. Musk is a competitor. He’s competing. It’s an unorthodox way of competing,” Lightcap said.
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI. The AI startup is discussing a $40 billion investment with SoftBank. Once this deal is finalized, it could push OpenAI’s valuation after DeepSeek to about $300 billion.
