According to media reports, the financial health of OpenAI, the company behind chatbot platform ChatGPT, appears to be in jeopardy.
Sources point to a worrying trajectory for this artificial intelligence pioneer.
A recent study revealed that user engagement on the ChatGPT platform has seen a steady decline over the course of this year.
Fewer users turn to ChatGPT
In July, ChatGPT had 1.5 billion users, up from 1.7 billion in June and 1.9 billion in May, according to data from SimilarWeb. These figures do not include ChatGPT’s APIs and mobile application.
There could be several reasons for this drop, including school vacations in May, or a tendency for companies to develop their own chatbots rather than relying on ChatGPT.
One user tweeted, “I’m no longer allowed to use ChatGPT at work, but we’ve developed our own model based on ChatGPT.”
Astronomical costs for OpenAI
The introduction of ChatGPT, despite its revolutionary potential, resulted in significant financial losses for OpenAI. Operating costs for the model are around $700,000 per day. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, acknowledged these financial challenges, mentioning that computing costs were “dizzying”.
A recent report from Investopedia casts doubt on the ability of companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Inflection to go public. According to the report, these companies would need at least a decade of operation and $100 million in revenues to guarantee a successful IPO.
Growing sales and losses
Although OpenAI forecasts annual sales of $200 million in 2023 and hopes to reach $1 billion in 2024, the reality is quite different, with increasing losses.
OpenAI’s survival depends heavily on a $10 billion investment from Microsoft.
