{"id":52861,"date":"2026-04-16T00:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/openai-pivots-to-corporate-clients-as-competition-with-anthropic-heats-up\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T00:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:50:48","slug":"openai-pivots-to-corporate-clients-as-competition-with-anthropic-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/openai-pivots-to-corporate-clients-as-competition-with-anthropic-heats-up\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Pivots to Corporate Clients as Competition with Anthropic Heats Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The artificial intelligence company that created ChatGPT is making a strategic pivot toward corporate clients as it battles competitor Anthropic for dominance in the workplace AI market.<\/p>

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, who uses the same ChatGPT technology that helps her cook tilapia at home to summarize work emails and Slack messages, says the company is betting its future on professional applications rather than consumer products.<\/p>

The San Francisco-based firm plans to unveil a new AI system designed specifically for “high-value professional work” as competition intensifies with Anthropic for business customers seeking AI workplace assistants.<\/p>

“You’ll see a new model coming from us in short order. We feel very excited about it,” Friar told The Associated Press in an interview.<\/p>

Despite having more than 900 million weekly ChatGPT users, approximately 95% “don’t pay anything” for the service, according to Friar. While these free interactions build user dependency, they also drain expensive computing resources, making corporate customers essential for covering operational costs.<\/p>

Both OpenAI, worth $852 billion, and Anthropic, valued at $380 billion, currently spend more than they earn. This financial reality has sparked intense rivalry between the private AI research companies as they prepare for potential public stock offerings.<\/p>

The emphasis on business products has led OpenAI to discontinue some consumer projects, including the Sora AI video creation app.<\/p>

“I think it was a little heartbreaking, but we’re like, OK, it’s not the main event right now,” Friar explained. “We need to make sure that our new model that’s coming has enough compute.”<\/p>

OpenAI’s upcoming system, internally called “Spud,” promises to be the company’s “smartest model yet” with “stronger reasoning, better understanding of intent and dependencies, better follow-through and more reliable output in production.” This represents OpenAI’s response to Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos, which Anthropic describes as so advanced that it’s restricting access to select customers due to its ability to exceed human cybersecurity professionals in identifying computer vulnerabilities.<\/p>

Friar, previously CEO of neighborhood platform Nextdoor and hired as CFO in 2024, reports that business clients represented about 20% of OpenAI’s income when she joined. That figure has now reached 40% and is projected to hit 50% by year-end.<\/p>

This represents a dramatic change from late last year when co-founder and CEO Sam Altman was promoting a now-canceled Sora collaboration with Disney, developing advertising plans for ChatGPT, and considering adult content features for paying subscribers.<\/p>

Altman recently acknowledged on the “Mostly Human” podcast that better focus was necessary, a view Friar supports.<\/p>

“Tech companies, when they’re growing, it’s just this natural thing that happens. There’s so many cool things you could do,” she said, noting that companies can perform “really badly” when spread too thin, while “great companies are very good at, in a reasonable period of time, kind of doing that winnowing down and refocusing and it’s super painful.”<\/p>

The strategic shift was highlighted by hiring former Slack CEO Denise Dresser as OpenAI’s first chief revenue officer three months ago.<\/p>

In a recent AP interview, Dresser said she’s concentrated on meeting corporate executives and establishing OpenAI as the preferred platform for businesses implementing AI agents to automate computer-based tasks.<\/p>

“It’s really clear to me that companies are past the experimentation phase and they’re into using AI to do real work,” Dresser stated. “Leaders at companies are recognizing that AI is probably the most consequential shift of their lifetime.”<\/p>

However, business leaders also have alternatives, particularly Anthropic’s Claude system, which has gained popularity among software developers. Established in 2021 by former OpenAI executives who emphasized AI safety, Anthropic has marketed itself as the more responsible AI provider. This positioning gained attention when the Trump administration penalized the startup following a military contract dispute, allowing Altman to secure OpenAI’s own Pentagon agreement.<\/p>

Public interest in Anthropic has grown, with the company reporting $30 billion in annualized revenue, exceeding OpenAI’s disclosed figures, though the companies use different measurement methods. Friar and Dresser declined to share OpenAI’s current sales numbers but suggested Anthropic’s figure is misleading because it doesn’t account for revenue shared with cloud providers Amazon and Google.<\/p>

The competition remains close and tied to stock market performance and economic conditions.<\/p>

“They’re likely quite close,” said Luke Emberson, a researcher at nonprofit Epoch AI. “Certainly the trends show Anthropic is growing much faster than OpenAI. If that continues, they’re likely to cross soon.”<\/p>

This urgency prompted Dresser to send employees a Sunday memo, first reported by The Verge, acknowledging that Anthropic’s programming focus “gave them an early wedge” while expressing confidence in OpenAI’s “real structural advantage” as AI adoption spreads beyond software developers and OpenAI expands computing capacity.<\/p>

“Their story is built on fear, restriction, and the idea that a small group of elites should control AI,” Dresser’s memo said about Anthropic. “Our positive message will win over time: build powerful systems, put in the right safeguards, expand access, and help people do more.”<\/p>

Critics of AI financial sustainability find both companies’ trajectories concerning as smaller startups increasingly rely on their tools. Anthropic has already implemented usage limits on heavy users, creating hour-long waits for Claude access, while both companies offer premium tiers favoring paying customers, according to author and AI critic Ed Zitron.<\/p>

“It’s what I call the subprime AI crisis,” Zitron said. “People built their lives and they built their businesses on top of these companies that, as they try and save money, will start turning the screws.”<\/p>

AI supporters and critics agree the technology is expensive, though whether the cost of power-hungry AI computers is justified remains uncertain.<\/p>

“People will say, well, ‘Once they go public, they’re safe.’ That’s not true,” Zitron said. “Public companies can and will die, especially ones that are dependent on $100 billion to $200 billion every year or so, just to keep breathing.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The company behind ChatGPT is shifting its strategy toward business customers as it competes with rival Anthropic for corporate AI contracts. OpenAI’s CFO says business revenue has doubled from 20% to 40% of total sales, with plans to reach 50% by year’s end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":52860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[834],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776315048063.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-dKB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23303,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/rival-ai-ceos-refuse-to-hold-hands-at-india-summit-creating-viral-moment\/","url_meta":{"origin":52861,"position":0},"title":"Rival AI CEOs Refuse to Hold Hands at India Summit, Creating Viral Moment","author":"Admin","date":"February 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A photo opportunity at India's AI summit became an internet sensation when OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei awkwardly avoided holding hands during a group pose. 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