"Since 2022, OpenAI has been the primary character in the most interesting tech and business story in years. ChatGPT was early, and so was OpenAI's fundraising. Its models were more capable than anything else people had access to, and each new one reshaped the discourse around generative AI in the company's favor. As 2025 comes to an end, other companies' models have basically caught up; Google, Anthropic, and xAI have been handing popular AI benchmarks back and forth all year (including this week)."
"They've also built comparable products, trying to lure software developers and casual users with long but similar lists of features and capabilities (search, deep research, image and video generation, memory, etc.), all while competing aggressively on price. Other firms have raised or committed huge amounts of money, and OpenAI has lost a lot of talent. In other words, the company most identified with the AI race - which now has enormous financial commitments and a lot to lose - is no longer running away with it."
OpenAI led the AI boom since 2022 with early ChatGPT release and aggressive fundraising, and its models initially outpaced public alternatives. By late 2025, competitors including Google, Anthropic, and xAI have matched capabilities and exchanged benchmark leads. Rival firms offer similar feature sets—search, research, image and video generation, memory—while competing on price and raising large investments. OpenAI has lost significant talent amid this shift and faces no clear dominance or unique profitability path. The company is diversifying with products like Sora and Disney partnerships for video character inclusion while refocusing on driving ChatGPT usage.
Read at Intelligencer
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