Revisiting the Crisis Narrative Surrounding OpenAI and Its Repeated Controversies
OpenAI crisis narrative: the reason behind its rebound amid slowing growth and valuation concerns Quickly review the key issues and outlook, and read the market’s perspective
OpenAI has recently once again been swept up in concerns about a crisis amid its latest results and growth outlook, and it has been found that similar controversies had been raised several times in the past as well. This article summarizes why OpenAI has been subject to suspicion and criticism after rising to No. 1 in the generative AI market.
Following last month’s Wall Street Journal report, concerns were raised about slowing user growth, the burden of largescale computing contracts, and rumors of conflict among executives. OpenAI denied the related suspicions, saying its business operations are stable.
Subsequent articles revisited past crisis theories, including a drop in ChatGPT traffic in 2023, controversy over overvaluation of its corporate value in late 2024, and questions in 2025 about whether its technological edge would hold after DeepSeek’s emergence. However, OpenAI rebounded each time by sharply increasing revenue and user numbers, and recently it has been moving to introduce lowercost plans and advertising to strengthen monetization. The market’s attention is now focused on whether OpenAI can maintain its growth despite intensifying competition.