OpenAI CEO Reassures Staff Despite Google’s Advantage

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued a candid internal memo to employees, acknowledging that the accelerated success of rivals, particularly Google’s Gemini 3 model, could “create some temporary economic headwinds for our company.”

The leaked memo marks a rare public concession from the leader of the generative AI pioneer, signaling an intensification of the global artificial intelligence arms race.

Sam’s message, which was circulated internally shortly before Google’s high-profile Gemini 3 launch, serves as both a reality check and a rallying cry.

While he sought to reassure staff that OpenAI is “catching up fast” and remains focused on its long-term vision of achieving superintelligence, he admitted that the outside environment might feel like “rough vibes” for a period.

The Google Threat to OpenAI: Economic and Technical Pressure

The memo attributes the competitive pressure directly to the technical strides made by Google, as well as the narrowing gap presented by competitors like Anthropic.

• Economic Headwinds: Sam warned that Google’s financial scale—with its $3.5 trillion market value and massive free cash flow—gives it a sizeable economic advantage. Google’s ability to weave its advanced AI, like Gemini, directly into its vast ecosystem (Search, Android, Workspace) grants it instant access to billions of users, threatening to erode OpenAI’s first-mover advantage and market share. Analysts have suggested this competitive pressure could potentially slow OpenAI’s revenue growth.
• Technical Resurgence: Sam praised Google for doing “excellent work recently in every aspect,” particularly in pre-training, an area where Google’s Gemini 3 has shown strong results in complex tasks like coding, automated website creation, and product design. These are critical, high-revenue domains where OpenAI’s models once dominated.
• Catching Up Fast: Sam acknowledged that competitors are closing the gap but insisted that OpenAI remains the faster-moving research organization. The company’s response includes focusing on “very ambitious bets” and developing a new model, codenamed “Shallotpeat,” specifically designed to address pre-training deficiencies and fix bugs.

A Rallying Cry for Superintelligence

Despite the competitive challenges, Sam struck a determined tone, urging employees to focus on the company’s core, long-term mission: the development of Artificial Superintelligence (ASI).

“We need to stay focused through short-term competitive pressure,” Sam reportedly wrote, emphasizing that having most of the research team focused on “really getting to superintelligence is critically important.”

He also acknowledged the immense difficulty of their task, balancing multiple identities simultaneously: “the best research lab, the best AI infrastructure company, and the best AI platform/product company.” 

Yet, he concluded optimistically: “I wouldn’t trade positions with any other company.”

This message underscores OpenAI’s commitment to weathering temporary financial uncertainty to pursue its founding mission, even as the global AI landscape rapidly shifts.

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