OpenAI Inc. Pivots to Enterprise Tools to Counter Anthropic Growth

OpenAI Inc. is implementing a strategic reset to prioritize its core business, specifically coding tools and enterprise adoption, while scaling back experimental side projects. During a company-wide all-hands meeting, OpenAI Inc. leadership notified staff that the company is pivoting away from a broad do everything strategy to regain a competitive lead over Anthropic.

This recalibration follows the success of Anthropic's Claude Code and Cowork offerings, which have gained significant traction among corporate users and briefly surpassed ChatGPT in app store rankings. Fidji Simo, OpenAI Inc.'s CEO of applications, described this competition as a wake-up call and stated the company is treating the situation as a code red.

To support this shift, OpenAI Inc. recently launched GPT-5.4 and a refreshed Codex app, the latter of which reported over two million weekly active users as of March 2026. The company also hired OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger in February to bolster agentic capabilities. CEO Sam Altman and Chief Research Officer Mark Chen are currently identifying which non-core projects to deprioritize.

Projects facing potential atrophy or reduced priority include the Atlas web browser, the Sora video generator, e-commerce features, and rumored AI-powered earbuds developed with Jony Ive. Additionally, the company has delayed the release of adult mode features due to internal concerns and age verification requirements.