OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, has seen a significant rise in its weekly active user base, surpassing 400 million in February, according to a spokesperson for the company who spoke with Reuters on Thursday. This increase underscores the accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence technologies.
In December, the platform reported 300 million weekly active users, and it has also surpassed 2 million paying business users in February, marking a more than 100% increase since the last report in September.
This positive growth follows the recent introduction of an AI model by China’s DeepSeek, which claims to match or even exceed the capabilities of Western competitors at a lower cost, raising concerns about the United States’ leading position in the generative AI market.
However, DeepSeek has faced challenges, including service outages due to a spike in demand shortly after its launch.
There are ongoing inquiries regarding how DeepSeek was able to acquire Nvidia’s H800 chips, which are critical for training AI models, particularly since the U.S. government has implemented bans on the export of these components to China.
OpenAI has also noted a substantial uptick in activity, reporting a twofold increase in developer traffic for its reasoning models over the past six months, along with a remarkable fivefold rise in usage for its o3 model since its introduction in late January.
The announcement regarding OpenAI’s user metrics was initially made public by CNBC earlier in the day.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
