OpenAI CEO Shifts Responsibilities, Preps ‘Spud’ AI Model - The Information
OpenAI is reorganizing its internal structure around a new AI model codenamed Spud, according to a report by The Information, which cited a person familiar with the matter. The shift represents the most significant structural move by CEO Sam Altman as OpenAI positions itself for a potential public offering — consolidating three of its flagship products into a single desktop application and narrowing organizational focus to core commercial priorities.
The Information's report is paywalled, and type0 could not independently verify the Spud model's existence or development timeline. The report has not been corroborated by any other outlet.
If the reorganization holds, it would bring together ChatGPT, the Codex coding platform, and the Atlas browser under one roof — a consolidation OpenAI has been building toward since at least early March. Chief Executive of Applications Fidji Simo told staff the imperative plainly: "We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests," according to Reuters, which reviewed the transcript of an all-hands meeting. Simo, who oversees nearly two-thirds of the company, added: "What really matters for us right now is staying focused and executing extremely well."
The push toward focus is real, and it was not self-generated. In December, Google released an updated Gemini model that topped industry leaderboards, and Altman declared a code red, according to Tech Brew. Even after OpenAI made coding dominance its top priority, Anthropic's coding tool continued to outperform it — a person familiar with OpenAI's internal goals told Business Insider. That competitive pressure is the direct backdrop for the Spud reorganization. OpenAI has been pouring resources into closing the gap. Codex now has more than 2 million weekly active users, nearly four times as many as at the start of the year, Business Insider reported.
The financial context for the reorganization is unusually concrete. The company told investors in February it is targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030, down from the $1.4 trillion figure Altman had previously been touting, according to CNBC, which viewed a document OpenAI circulated to prospective investors. OpenAI projects more than $280 billion in total revenue for 2030, and an IPO could land as soon as Q4 2026. The company raised $110 billion this year — including $50 billion from Amazon — and was valued at $730 billion in February. ChatGPT has more than 900 million weekly active users, CFO Sarah Friar has been hiring former Block CAO Ajmere Dale and former DocuSign CFO Cynthia Gaylor to ready the finance function, and OpenAI plans to nearly double headcount to about 8,000 from roughly 4,500, according to Fortune.
OpenAI is also in advanced talks on a joint venture with private equity firms TPG, Brookfield, and Bain Capital that would focus on accelerating AI software adoption, with roughly $4 billion in investment at a pre-money valuation near $10 billion, Fortune separately reported. The company has revealed plans to acquire Astral, a startup that makes Python tools for developers, and earlier this month agreed to buy AI security startup Promptfoo.
The Spud reorganization, if it proceeds as described, would slot this IPO-bound entity into a cleaner structural form — one where a flagship model is the connective tissue of a unified product suite rather than a research artifact floating above the business. Whether Spud itself ships on schedule, or whether the competitive pressure that prompted the reorganization has already moved the goalposts, is a question that will answer itself before the IPO documents do.