OpenAI Plans to Nearly Double Workforce to 8,000 as Competition With Anthropic Intensifies

OpenAI plans to expand its workforce from approximately 4,500 to roughly 8,000 employees by end of 2026, hiring at a rate of 12 people per day. The expansion comes as Anthropic's Claude overtook ChatGPT as the most-downloaded free AI app on Apple's US App Store, and Anthropic's revenue trajectory suggests it could surpass OpenAI by year-end. OpenAI is also in advanced talks to purchase 5 GW of fusion power from Sam Altman-backed Helion Energy by 2030, signaling long-term compute infrastructure investment.