As the Big Tech industry doubles down on AI-powered layoffs across the board, a new report suggested that Sam Altman‘s startup OpenAI had surprisingly chosen to go against the grain. According to The Financial Times, the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence company has plans to nearly double its workforce by the end of 2026.

The report cited two people with direct knowledge of the development, saying that OpenAI was on track to raise its headcount from the current 4,500 mark to approximately 8,000. The purported hiring move has made headlines as the AI company’s up-and-coming rival, Anthropic, continues to gain momentum on the mainstream AI scene.

Where will the new OpenAI hires be deployed?

According to the FT report, the incoming employees will mostly be deployed across product development, engineering, research and sales departments.

People privy to the hiring spree further told the financial outlet that the ChatGPT maker aimed to bring in specialists to focus on an initiative called “technical ambassadorship,” which will facilitate better use of its tools among business customers.

The new claims that the company is focusing on increasing its workforce made headlines weeks after US reports suggested OpenAI had finalised its expansion in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighbourhood. According to the SF Chronicle and real estate brokerage Newmark, the AI pioneer signed a deal in February to sublease roughly 280,000 square ft of office space at the former Dropbox headquarters at 1800 Owens St, aka The Exchange.

The new office space will expand OpenAI’s San Francisco footprint to over 1 million square ft.

OpenAI vs Anthropic rivalry fuelling a strategy shift?

Both AI pioneers have recently been embroiled in a fight over Pentagon contracts, which has only deepened their industry feud. While OpenAI created the fastest-growing consumer app in tech history, Anthropic, a significantly smaller rival, managed to add thousands of big businesses as customers in just a few months, according to The New York Times.

Despite falling out with the Pentagon, Anthropic gained a stronger standing in the public view. Its smartphone app soared to the No 1 spot in Apple’s App Store downloads after OpenAI jumped to strike its own Pentagon deal.

Just earlier this month, Axios reported that Anthropic is capturing over 73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time. The split with OpenAI has profoundly shifted, as just 10 weeks ago, it stood at 50/50 despite being 60/40 in OpenAI’s favour in early December.

Consequently, OpenAI seriously considered a strategy shift to a tighter focus on enterprise, according to the Wall Street Journal. Even though OpenAI says it’s on track to generate $25 billion in revenue this year as opposed to Anthropic’s $19 billion, the latter is apparently accelerating faster.

Last month, an Axios report citing a Ramp economist indicated that the share of companies paying for Anthropic increased from 17% to 20% in January. Meanwhile, OpenAI dropped slightly from 37% to 26%.

The figures further showed that 1 in 5 businesses that use Ramp, a company offering corporate credit cards and expense-management tools to roughly 50,000 companies nationwide, now pay for Anthropic. These figures stood at 1 in 25 last year.