February 9 (Reuters) – OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) CEO Sam Altman told employees that monthly growth for the startup’s artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has returned to more than 10%, CNBC reported on Monday.
Citing sources inside Altman’s Slack, the report said the startup, which has more than 800 million weekly active users, is also preparing to launch an “updated chat model” this week.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Artificial intelligence startups, including Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Anthropic (ANTH.PVT), are stepping up their game to win new customers and market share. As of the end of the December quarter, the Google Gemini app had more than 750 million monthly active users.
Anthropic is seen as a disruptor in the software industry as software developers have embraced its AI coding. The company is pushing business deals with products like Claude Cowork, which performs computer tasks for white-collar workers.
Altman said that OpenAI’s coding product Codex has grown by about 50% from a week ago. CNBC reports that Codex competes directly with Anthropic’s computer programming tool Claude Code.
Last week, OpenAI launched a new coding model called GPT-5.3-Codex.
OpenAI said it will start showing ads in ChatGPT to some U.S. users as it ramps up efforts to generate revenue from its artificial intelligence chatbots to fund the high costs of developing the technology.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
