Bloomberg reported on the 26th (local time) that OpenAI recently shared with its employees its expectation that sales would reach $12.7 billion (about 18.7 trillion won) this year. Next year's sales are expected to reach $29.4 billion (about 43 trillion won), more than double this year's sales expectations. OpenAI's sales were $3.7 billion (about 5.42 trillion won) last year. The New York Times previously reported that OpenAI had set its target sales for this year at $11.6 billion. In other words, open AI growth is faster than expected.
The rapid growth of open AI is due to ChatGPT's strong competitiveness, which is evolving into an 'AI super app'. Currently, OpenAI sales are estimated to come mostly from ChatGPT paid subscribers. OpenAI operates a variety of paid services, including ChatGPT Plus ($20 per month), which is faster than the free version, ChatGPT Pro ($200 per month), which has no limit on usage, and ChatGPT for companies. As of last year, 15.5 million paid subscribers are known. ChatGPT has 400 million weekly users, the highest number of AI services used by individuals.
The biggest advantage of ChatGPT is that it plays various functions and roles with one app. Basically, you can ask for various knowledge through text conversation, and you can request a draft writing or modify the writing you wrote.
ChatGPT has excellent image recognition capabilities, so it analyzes and explains the attached images. The recently updated image generation ability allows users to draw in various styles to meet their needs, and it perfectly puts not only English but also Korean into the image. The coding ability, which has been around since ChatGPT first appeared, has improved to the level of beginner developers. AI agent's ability to handle users' work on their behalf will also be added in the future. These various abilities and user convenience are evaluated to be far ahead of competitive services such as Gemini, Claude, Grook, and Purple Lexy.
The market predicts that OpenAI will continue to develop ChatGPT into an AI super app.
However, as ChatGPT adds more and more consumer-friendly features, more and more conflicts with OpenAI's other business, the API (Application Interface) business are expected. OpenAI provides its AI model for startups or general companies to use and charges based on usage.
It is not expected to turn into a surplus for the time being. "OpenAI 2029 sales are expected to reach $125 billion (about 183 trillion won), Bloomberg said. "Until then, it will be difficult for cash flow to turn into a surplus."
Bloomberg reported on the same day that the attraction of $40 billion in open AI led by Japan's Softbank was almost completed. As a result, the value of OpenAI companies jumped to 300 billion dollars (about 440 trillion won), including 40 billion dollars. The valuation was $157 billion in October last year, but the ransom nearly doubled in less than six months. This is the second time after SpaceX ($350 billion), a rocket company that ranks first in ransom among unlisted companies. It is also higher than Samsung Electronics (268.9 billion dollars).
[Silicon Valley correspondent Lee Deok-ju]
