In brief
- OpenAI may be revamping ChatGPT into a “super‑app” that bundles Codex, AI agents and third‑party integrations.
- The internally codenamed project “Aria” is designed to steer users toward higher‑margin products ahead of a projected Q4 2026 IPO.
- Since the February launch of a desktop app, Codex usage has risen sixfold to more than 5 million weekly active users, most of whom are paying customers.
OpenAI now has nearly one billion ChatGPT users, most of whom use the service for free—a challenge the company hopes to address before going public.
According to the Financial Times, based on interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, OpenAI intends to turn ChatGPT into a super‑app—a single interface for coding, task automation, image generation and partner applications. The redesign carries the internal codename “Aria.”
OpenAI has not confirmed the codename or a firm launch date, but changes to the website and mobile apps are expected to roll out in the coming weeks.
Thibault Sottiaux, who previously ran Codex and now leads OpenAI’s core product and platform, told the FT that the goal is an assistant “capable of helping you across everything in your life, be it personally or at work.”
“Chat is dead,” one senior OpenAI employee told the Financial Times—an unexpected sentiment from the creator of ChatGPT.
WeChat as a Blueprint
The super‑app model is exemplified by WeChat, which evolved from a messaging platform into an ecosystem handling 45 billion daily messages for 1.4 billion monthly users. Its payment services process roughly $40 trillion in transactions each year, allowing Chinese users to book doctors, pay taxes and hail rides without leaving the app.
Elon Musk has pursued a similar vision for X since acquiring Twitter in 2022, launching XChat and X Money, but the payments component has struggled to gain traction. Meta’s attempts with Messenger bots and WhatsApp payments have faced comparable challenges.
OpenAI’s approach differs: rather than building a social network, it seeks to extend a work‑focused platform—ChatGPT—into a broader productivity hub.
The Codex coding agent can write, debug and deploy software from a text prompt. The ChatGPT Agent, launched in July 2025, can browse the web, run apps and place orders autonomously. Workspace agents, released in April 2026, orchestrate multi‑step workflows inside Slack and other enterprise tools.
OpenAI plans to consolidate this stack into a single interface.
IPO Considerations
OpenAI’s annualized revenue now exceeds $20 billion, with business customers contributing roughly 40 %. Unlike most ChatGPT users, the majority of Codex users are paying customers.
Jenny Xiao, a Leonis Capital partner and former OpenAI researcher, told the FT that OpenAI has shifted from a “swing for the fences” mindset to a focus on profitability, mirroring Anthropic’s approach as both firms prepare for IPOs.
Anthropic recently filed a confidential Form S‑1, reporting $2.5 billion in annualized revenue for Claude Code and an 80 % enterprise sales mix. OpenAI filed its own confidential IPO paperwork today, targeting a Q4 2026 listing.
Alex Embiricos, OpenAI’s head of enterprise product, speculated that once AGI arrives, “there will be a single entity that can do whatever I need.” The company is also acquiring Python toolmaker Astral to embed developer tools directly into Codex.
Source link
