SAN FRANCISCO, California: OpenAI is shifting its focus squarely back to ChatGPT after CEO Sam Altman told employees the company must accelerate improvements to its flagship product amid intensifying competition, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In an internal memo, Altman declared a "code red," urging staff to enhance ChatGPT's speed, reliability, and personalization features. He also said work on several other initiatives would be delayed, according to the report. Tech outlet The Information separately reported on the memo.

The urgency comes as OpenAI marks three years since launching ChatGPT, the chatbot that sparked a global surge in interest in generative AI and helped cement the company's early lead. But that lead is increasingly challenged, including by Google's release last month of Gemini 3, the newest version of its AI assistant.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Altman said this fall that ChatGPT had surpassed 800 million weekly users. Despite that scale, the company, valued at US$500 billion, remains unprofitable and has accumulated more than $1 trillion in financial commitments to cloud computing providers and chipmakers that support its AI models.

Those obligations, coupled with questions about OpenAI's long-term profitability, have intensified concerns among investors about the broader AI market.

Nick Turley, OpenAI's vice president and head of ChatGPT, wrote on social media Monday that online search represents one of ChatGPT's most significant opportunities as the company works to make the product "even more intuitive and personal."

OpenAI currently earns money through paid ChatGPT subscriptions, while most users access the free version. The company also launched its Atlas web browser in October, a move seen as a direct challenge to Google Chrome as more users rely on AI tools to answer online queries. OpenAI has not yet introduced advertising on ChatGPT, a key revenue engine for Google's search business.

According to the Journal, Altman's memo said OpenAI would pause development of advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a planned personal assistant called Pulse while it concentrates resources on improving ChatGPT.