OpenAI is planning to nearly double its workforce to about 8,000 employees by the end of 2026 as it intensifies efforts to win business customers and counter rising competition in the artificial intelligence market.

The Financial Times reported that the San Francisco-based group, currently employing around 4,500 staff, intends to expand hiring across product development, engineering, research and sales, citing two people with direct knowledge of the plans. The company is also increasing recruitment of specialists focused on “technical ambassadorship” to help corporate clients deploy its tools more effectively.

Reuters, citing the Financial Times, said the expansion forms part of a broader strategy shift as OpenAI seeks to strengthen its position against rivals including Anthropic and Google. The company has signed a new lease in San Francisco, taking its office footprint beyond 1mn square feet as it prepares for rapid hiring.

Ramp data reported by the Financial Times indicates that Anthropic is attracting new business customers at roughly three times the rate of OpenAI, reversing their positions from a year earlier. An OpenAI spokesperson disputed the figures, stating that “the notion that enterprise market share can be derived from Ramp credit card data is insane” and arguing that large corporate contracts are not typically paid via such platforms.

The Financial Times said internal changes have accompanied the hiring drive, with chief executive Sam Altman issuing a “code red” late last year to refocus the company on its core products. Fidji Simo, who leads OpenAI’s applications business, has urged staff to prioritise improvements to its coding model Codex and expand its appeal as a productivity tool for businesses.

OpenAI is also exploring new commercial avenues, including bundling ChatGPT and Codex into a single desktop application and discussing partnerships with private equity firms to deploy its technology across portfolio companies, according to the Financial Times.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic remain lossmaking as they invest heavily in training advanced AI models, while preparing for potential public listings as early as this year. The Financial Times reported that Anthropic’s enterprise-focused approach has driven rapid revenue growth, aided by demand for its coding tool Claude Code.

An OpenAI executive told the Financial Times that coding tools have “opened up entirely new lanes” for the company, adding that “it does change how you think about everything from your products to how you serve the market”.

The Guardian reported that OpenAI’s public sector ambitions in the UK have yet to translate into formal deployments, despite a high-profile memorandum of understanding signed with the government eight months ago. A freedom of information request found the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology had not conducted any trials under the agreement.

The paper also reported that policy experts have raised concerns about oversight and accountability in such partnerships. Matt Davies, economic and social policy lead at the Ada Lovelace Institute, said “government experimentation with these technologies must be open and transparent”, warning that voluntary agreements with AI companies raise questions about scrutiny and long-term dependence

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