OpenAI to cut back on side projects to focus on core business, WSJ reports - Reuters
OpenAI is preparing to narrow its focus. The company told employees Monday that executives including CEO Sam Altman and chief research officer Mark Chen are reviewing which areas to deprioritize, according to the Wall Street Journal. Fidji Simo, OpenAI's chief of applications, previewed the changes at an all-hands meeting, telling staff to expect notifications about the restructuring in the coming weeks.
The shift is toward coding and business users. The company declined to comment to Reuters.
The strategic focus comes against a backdrop of pressure on multiple fronts. OpenAI has secured the Pentagon classified AI contract that Anthropic vacated, giving it a significant government revenue stream — but one that comes with its own scrutiny. The Tumbler Ridge tragedy in Canada has produced political pressure for AI companies to accept binding safety obligations, which OpenAI has so far resisted. And in the open source security ecosystem, the company is one of seven major AI developers pooling resources to address systemic vulnerabilities caused partly by AI itself.
What deprioritization looks like in practice remains to be seen. OpenAI has pursued an unusually broad set of projects for a company at its stage — consumer products, API access, enterprise agreements, research partnerships, and infrastructure. Cutting side projects would represent a maturation signal, a recognition that the window for unlimited expansion is narrowing and that the next phase requires focus over breadth.
The revenue picture is instructive. The company reported $20 billion in annualized revenue in 2025, up from $6 billion in 2024 and $2 billion in 2023. That growth has come largely from API and enterprise customers, not consumer products. Coding and business users are the source. Cutting side projects is a logical response to that arithmetic.
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