OpenAI Plans to Nearly Double Workforce to 8,000 as Anthropic Captures 70% of New Enterprise AI Deals

OpenAI is planning to expand from roughly 4,500 employees to approximately 8,000 before year-end, stepping up its focus on enterprise customers in direct response to Anthropic's growing competitive pressure. Among companies purchasing AI services for the first time, Anthropic now wins approximately 70% of head-to-head matchups. The hiring push comes after Anthropic's Claude overtook ChatGPT as the top iPhone app following OpenAI's $200 million Pentagon contract controversy, which triggered a user boycott. OpenAI released GPT-5.4 on March 5 with native computer-use capabilities and a 1M-token context window, but the market share data suggests the model release alone has not reversed the trend.