Amidst increasingly fierce competition with Anthropic and Google, and after months of disorderly expansion of its offerings, OpenAI has chosen to change course. The company is working on a desktop “superapp” that will bring together ChatGPT, Codex, and the Atlas browser, aiming to simplify the user experience and focus resources on a single platform.
GOAL: OVERCOMING FRAGMENTATION
From a memo cited by the Wall Street Journal, it emerges that the decision is based on the need to reduce internal dispersion. Applications CEO Fidji Simo, former CEO of Instacart, explained that fragmentation “has slowed us down and made it harder to reach the level of quality we want.”
According to CNBC, Simo will lead the project with support from chairman Greg Brockman, also overseeing related organizational changes.
STRATEGY SHIFT AFTER A YEAR OF EXPANSION
The move, notes The Verge, marks a break from the recent past, when OpenAI focused on multiple independent apps. This approach produced uneven results and scattered internal attention.
“Companies go through phases of exploration and phases of refocusing; both are critical,” Simo wrote on X. “But when new bets start to work, as we are now seeing with Codex, it’s very important to focus on them and avoid distractions.”
THE “AGENT” AI, THE HEART OF THE SUPERAPP
The project revolves around developing “agent” artificial intelligence systems designed to operate autonomously on the user’s computer and perform tasks such as programming and data analysis. In this perspective, Codex will be extended beyond coding, while ChatGPT and Atlas will be progressively integrated into the unified application. The mobile version of ChatGPT, however, will remain separate.
COMPETITORS’ PRESSURE
But beyond simplification, what is pushing OpenAI towards this reorganization is also competitive pressure. Anthropic, writes Quartz, has gained ground especially in the enterprise market, where companies purchase AI tools to boost productivity. By the end of 2025, the company’s revenue was about $9 billion annualized, reaching nearly $20 billion in early March, with a 40% share of enterprise AI spending. In the same period, OpenAI’s share dropped to about 27%. The success of Claude Code among developers and business clients has helped reinforce this dynamic.
At the same time, Google remains a direct competitor in the AI race, pushing OpenAI to maintain a high pace of innovation and consolidate its products.
INTERNAL PRIORITIES AND OUTLOOK
Currently, OpenAI, which is preparing for a possible IPO that could happen as early as this year, is reviewing its product portfolio to identify initiatives to scale back or discontinue, after introducing tools like Codex and the Atlas browser in recent months. Additionally, during an internal meeting, employees were asked to avoid “side missions” and focus on the highest productivity use cases, in a context the company described as “code red.”
