OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is feeling three prongs of increased pressure that have him seeing red: Wall Street, chatbot users and Google.
Why it matters: They're all testing a CEO known for staying cool at a time when his competitive advantage increasingly looks like it's under threat.
- That reportedly inspired him to declare a "code red surge" to employees Monday to focus on improving ChatGPT.
Here's what's keeping Altman up at night:
1. Money
OpenAI has long underestimated how many people would use ChatGPT and how expensive that training and usage would become.
- The original Microsoft deal helped cover those costs. Now that the partnership has been restructured, OpenAI will have to generate far more revenue on its own to fund future training and inference.
- OpenAI has committed to spending $1.4 trillion in infrastructure and says it hopes to build a gigawatt of new capacity per week, at a cost of around $20 billion per gigawatt. But when questioned about those figures, Altman has gotten defensive of late.
- You don't have to understand or even believe in the AI bubble to know that allegations of circular investing, mounting debt and a weakening job market are rattling the industry — to say nothing of a blowup over even the hint of a federal backstop for AI companies.
2. Safety
Altman has repeatedly expressed surprise that people would use ChatGPT as a therapist, confidant and romantic partner.
- Facing multiple lawsuits from families whose teens and other loved ones got bad advice while in crisis, OpenAI has added parental controls and other mental health guardrails.
- These updates have neither stopped the lawsuits nor appeased users as a whole.
- The company's latest model — GPT-5 — had a bumpy rollout, and users openly rebelled, calling the new model "the lobotomization of GPT-4o" and accusing the company of "psychological paternalism."
3. Gemini
The real threat is Google's Gemini, which has the money, data and chips to compete with OpenAI on an entirely different level.
- Google was caught flat-footed when OpenAI released ChatGPT three years ago, but the search giant is finally catching up.
- The company released Gemini 3 Pro last month, the latest version of its AI model that will power the company's core search engine and the Gemini app.
- Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff heaped praise on Gemini 3, saying "I'm not going back."
For the record: OpenAI pointed Axios to a thread on X from ChatGPT head Nick Turley, which said in part: "Our focus now is to keep making ChatGPT more capable, continue growing, and expand access around the world — while making it feel even more intuitive and personal."
The intrigue: The one place OpenAI isn't facing pressure? The White House.
- President Trump's aggressive pro-AI agenda has been a great gift to OpenAI.
- Longtime Altman antagonist Elon Musk — no longer completely aligned with Trump — has also been unable to slow OpenAI, despite repeated attempts.
What we're watching: Gemini's app downloads are catching up to ChatGPT's.
- Estimates show Gemini's generative AI market share doubling in the last year and beating out OpenAI in speed of brand growth.
- Google's long lead in search, user data and product distribution shows no signs of slowing.
The bottom line: OpenAI's next few months will show whether Altman can steady the company under pressure or turn it into the next Betamax.
