In an internal Slack message sent Friday, Altman shared the growth metrics with staff as company leadership prepares to meet with investors over the next two weeks. The 800 million weekly user milestone means roughly 10% of the world's population now uses ChatGPT regularly—double the user base of all major competitors combined.
The announcement comes amid intense competition in the AI chatbot space, with Google and Anthropic both running aggressive Super Bowl advertising campaigns. Anthropic's commercials notably poked fun at OpenAI's decision to run ads within ChatGPT, prompting Altman and other executives to respond on social media, calling the competitor's ads "deceptive."
OpenAI's Codex coding product showed particularly impressive growth, surging approximately 50% in just one week following the launch of the new GPT-5.3-Codex model and a standalone app for Apple computers. The rapid adoption signals strong developer interest in AI-assisted coding tools.
The company's explosive growth has captured investor attention. OpenAI is currently in advanced discussions to secure up to $100 billion in new funding at a valuation that would make it one of the most valuable private companies in the world. CEO Altman and CFO Sarah Friar have been actively pitching the company's growth story to potential investors.