It’s “code red” inside OpenAI this week, as the longtime leader in the generative AI race feels its lead slipping away. Google (owned by Alphabet, No. 7) is mercilessly showing its AI strength under Sergey Brin, who has returned to the company he cofounded to make sure his team crushes the competition. The success of Google’s latest Gemini model and the intense competition for business customers are igniting concern among even Sam Altman’s most ardent supporters.
But anyone who did not see this coming has not been paying close enough attention. In January 2023, when Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn wrote our cover story on ChatGPT’s viral launch, he cautioned:
“Google and other titans are hard at work on their own A.I. platforms; and future, more polished software could make ChatGPT look like child’s play. OpenAI may someday find that, much like Netscape’s short-lived browser reign, its breakthrough has opened a door to a future it isn’t part of.”
What’s more, other well-funded startups are beginning to eat into OpenAI’s market share. Some reports show its $183 billion rival Anthropic earning a larger share of enterprise customers. For our latest cover story, Kahn sat down with cofounders Dario and Daniela Amodei (who are siblings and former OpenAI employees). And they were not shy about the do-or-die moment in AI.
“Business should care about bringing in cash, not setting cash on fire, right?” Dario Amodei told Kahn, before swiping at OpenAI: “Can you buy so many data centers that you over-leverage yourself?”
For Altman, the stakes couldn’t be higher. But no one should be rooting against OpenAI either. As our Jim Edwards recently wrote, the global markets are so reliant on AI—and specifically on Altman—to succeed that any serious shortcomings by the most-funded private company in history could lead to a financial reckoning.
Check out Kahn’s story on Anthropic here, and Fortune’s Sharon Goldman on the code-red situation at OpenAI here.