OpenAI Putting the Screws to Anthropic
As I mentioned earlier today I am really enjoying coding with Codex 5.5 in terminal. I always use AI coding tools in terminal as operating locally is much faster than operating in the cloud, which is why I built a terminal option for Kilby.
OpenAI has stated that there are more than 3 million Codex users out of more than 900 million total GPT users. I am not sure how many Codex users operate in terminal.
OpenAI has always been best-in-class in terms of the model’s personality. From a user experience standpoint, OpenAI is very generous with usage, especially in comparison to Anthropic’s throttling. Now for the first time in a long time OpenAI’s coding capability are also best-in-class, at least for now before Anthropic’s Mythos is released.
One of the Mythos rumors I heard a few weeks ago was that the model was too expensive to release, which is likely the reason Anthropic acquired more GPUs several weeks ago in an effort to increase capacity and bring down pricing. I have not spoken with anyone who has used Mythos to build anything.
It is also interesting that OpenAI reduced the cost of its top pricing tier from $200/month to $100/month. OpenAI has more GPUs than Anthropic. I believe that OpenAI has a larger balance sheet than Anthropic and it feel like OpenAI is trying to put the screws to Anthropic in advance of a Q3 or Q4 IPO.
I would try to punch out the IPO now if I were advising either company. I don’t know that either CEO or Board appreciates how fast things could go sideways if the Iran War persists or escalates. I fully expect it to persist because the DoD in service to its corporate masters (Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, RTX), needed something to replace the revenue stream generated by Afghanistan. Iran is that “something”.