OpenAI will cut parallel projects to avoid falling behind in the race for artificial intelligence

OpenAI is refocusing: from a multitude of ideas to key products

After the launch of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022, the startup OpenAI demonstrated almost limitless activity, constantly looking for new AI applications. In an increasingly competitive environment, such a “multidirectional” approach has already become unjustified from a business perspective. Therefore, company leadership is preparing a strategic review and plans to weed out secondary directions.

What the leadership says
At a general staff meeting, application director Fidji Simo announced that senior management—CEO Sam Altman and lead researcher Mark Chen—are currently determining which projects should be removed from the priority list. Personnel will be informed of specific decisions in the coming weeks.

“We can’t afford to get distracted by secondary tasks,” Simo emphasized in an interview with *The Wall Street Journal*. “We need to lock down overall productivity, especially in the business direction.”

Why it was like this
Last year OpenAI announced a whole range of initiatives: from e‑commerce and video generation to its own browser and hardware devices. Sam Altman explained the variety of projects by saying the company is “betting on several startups” within itself.

However, in reality this hindered employees from focusing on key tasks. The team working on the Sora video generator was in a research division, even though the product turned out to be one of the most influential and complex developments in the company. After the initial hype, demand fell, and now OpenAI plans to integrate Sora directly into ChatGPT.

New focus
OpenAI intends to concentrate on two key segments:

1. Code generation tools—competitor Anthropic is already successfully monetizing its solutions, and OpenAI does not want to lag behind. In response, OpenAI released Codex (the first product in this area) and the GPT‑5.4 model aimed at professionals. According to the company, Codex is used by more than 2 million users weekly—four times as many as at the beginning of the year.

2. Corporate clients—OpenAI aims to become a leader among both software developers and business customers.

Fidji Simo suggested strengthening integration between development teams and product releases, as well as unifying OpenAI’s long‑term strategy around boosting user productivity. She does not see it as worthwhile to have constant “red danger codes,” but urges employees to work as if their success directly depends on the outcome.

Competitive context
Anthropic has already gone public and plans to do so by the end of this year; OpenAI is considering an IPO in Q4. Although Anthropic currently does not offer video or image generation, it successfully monetizes code tools. The competitor’s success will serve as a signal for an “awakening” within OpenAI.

Conclusion
Thus, after a period of experimentation in 2022‑23, the company is moving to a more targeted strategy: eliminate excess projects and focus on code generation and serving corporate clients. This should increase team efficiency, accelerate product growth, and strengthen OpenAI’s position amid growing competition in the AI industry.