OpenAI’s rapid ascent from research lab to consumer tech giant reflects both the transformative potential and unresolved challenges facing the AI sector. Its breakthrough came with the global success of ChatGPT in late 2022, which by mid-2025 had more than 700 million weekly active users, making it the fastest app to reach 100 million users and cementing OpenAI’s status as a household name.

New data shows personal use now dominates. Nearly three-quarters of ChatGPT interactions are lifestyle-related, including health advice, travel planning and personal writing, compared with a year ago when usage was evenly split between personal and work. Coding queries now account for fewer than 5 per cent of interactions, signalling a decline in workplace use.

OpenAI’s ambitions rest on three pillars: consumer subscriptions, enterprise solutions and long-term research towards artificial general intelligence. But while consumer adoption has soared, enterprise results have been mixed. An MIT study in August found 95 per cent of enterprise AI pilots had stalled, reflecting scepticism over when AI will deliver measurable efficiencies.

Revenues are climbing sharply—annualised revenue hit $10 billion in June, almost double six months earlier. OpenAI forecasts $12.7 billion in 2025 and nearly $30 billion in 2026, but continues to post multi-billion-dollar losses. To strengthen its financial position, it is renegotiating partner revenue shares, cutting Microsoft’s take from 20 to 8 per cent by 2030, and exploring a fully for-profit structure. A $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank is expected to value the company at $300 billion.

The scale of infrastructure needed is immense. OpenAI has agreed a $300 billion contract with Oracle for cloud capacity from 2027. Training large models such as GPT-4 consumes energy equivalent to powering a major city for days, while billions of daily queries add to environmental concerns. The company and wider industry are now under pressure to embed sustainable practices.

The ChatGPT user base is also diversifying. Once dominated by men—80 per cent at launch—women now slightly outnumber men, an important shift in ensuring equitable access to AI benefits.

Legal challenges remain, particularly over the use of copyrighted material in training data. Recent rulings in the US have leaned towards recognising AI training as transformative fair use, reducing immediate litigation risks, though legal uncertainty persists if original markets are harmed.

OpenAI’s trajectory captures the paradox of generative AI: a technology reshaping communication and creativity, embraced enthusiastically by consumers yet still searching for sustainable business models and clearer societal guardrails. Its next phase will depend on balancing rapid innovation with environmental responsibility, inclusive growth and regulatory clarity.

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