Amid ongoing layoffs by global tech giants, OpenAI is aggressively expanding. According to the Financial Times, the company plans to increase its workforce from the current 4,500 employees to 8,000 by the end of 2026. This hiring focus will cover product development, engineering research and sales departments, with a special emphasis on newly created "Technical Ambassadors" expert positions, aimed at assisting enterprises in deeply integrating AI tools through on-site guidance, thus improving the efficiency of commercialization.

OpenAI

This expansion is seen as a strategic response by OpenAI against competition from Anthropic and its Claude model. A recent AI index released by financial technology company Ramp shows that although OpenAI still holds the largest share of the enterprise market (34.4%), it is facing severe challenges in acquiring new users - about 70% of enterprises purchasing AI services for the first time tend to choose Anthropic.

To reverse the situation, OpenAI has been actively taking measures recently: In February this year, after Anthropic broke away from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) due to restrictions on military applications, OpenAI quickly filled the gap and signed a contract to provide model support for classified and non-classified projects for the DoD; meanwhile, the company is deepening discussions with top private equity firms such as Brookfield Asset Management, planning to establish a $10 billion joint venture, directly embedding its AI tools into hundreds of portfolio companies under these institutions.

By building a Frontier Alliance ecosystem composed of "Technical Ambassadors" and consulting partners (such as McKinsey), OpenAI is trying to transition from a mere model provider to a deep enterprise solution provider. Analysts believe that this shift from "focusing on consumer-side features" to "deeply enhancing B-side productivity" will determine whether OpenAI can maintain a high valuation and achieve profitability during its upcoming IPO process.