Greetings,
The race for AI supremacy has entered a volatile new phase, and this week has made it clear that if you want to know what is actually happening behind the scenes, you have to read The Information. This week alone, our team has broken a series of exclusives that reveal a company at a critical crossroads, grappling with internal friction while facing an aggressive resurgence from Google.
As Stephanie Palazzolo, Sri Muppidi, and Amir Efrati report, the internal dynamics at OpenAI are shifting rapidly. We’ve been owning the coverage of this story—from Sam Altman’s "Code Red" refocusing of resources uncovered by Erin Woo & Stephanie Palazzolo to the staggering new valuation talks reported by Katie Roof & Sri Muppidi —providing the depth and authority you won't find anywhere else. If you want the real story of what’s happening inside the room, we have it first.
Why it caught my eye:
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Record-Breaking Valuation: OpenAI is in early discussions to raise tens of billions at a $750 billion valuation, a 50% jump in just two months.
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Operational Pivot: CEO Sam Altman declared a "code red" to prioritize ChatGPT improvements as competitors like Google’s Gemini 3 gain ground.
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The Specialized Data Hunt: To keep models advancing, OpenAI and Anthropic are aggressively courting biotech and accounting firms for proprietary datasets.
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Internal Friction: There is a growing disconnect between high-level reasoning research and the quick, daily utility that 800 million weekly users expect from ChatGPT.
The stakes for the AI lead have never been higher. These stories aren't just about technology; they’re about the governance, capital, and organizational willpower required to stay on top.
This is exactly why a subscription to The Information is essential—we are the only team consistently delivering the deep-level reporting and analysis you need to understand the market before the rest of the world catches up.
Best,
Jessica Lessin
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Over the past year, some OpenAI staffers noticed a concerning change in the way people who used ChatGPT were reacting to improvements in the chatbot.
In prior years, every time OpenAI made a big upgrade to the artificial intelligence that powers the chatbot, usage surged as people easily found ways to get useful responses out of it, one employee said.
But even as ChatGPT attracted more users this year, improvements to the underlying AI model’s intelligence—and the in-depth research or calculations it could suddenly handle—didn’t seem to matter to most people using the chatbot, several employees said.
