Bloomberg: Altman Suffers from 'Zuckerberg Syndrome', True IPO Ace is Microsoft, Not Super Apps

According to monitoring by 1M AI News, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Parmy Olson writes that OpenAI and Anthropic are both paving the way for an IPO by the end of 2026 or early 2027, but Altman is misplacing his focus. Olson compares Altman to Zuckerberg, noting his tendency to chase shiny new things: first getting ChatGPT to handle shopping, pouring massive computing power into Sora, and now betting on a new model codenamed Spud to create a ‘super app.’ However, super apps have never succeeded in the European and American markets, and Musk’s attempt to turn X into an all-purpose app also failed. She believes Altman should focus on repairing the relationship with Microsoft. Three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft 365, and Microsoft has 450 million enterprise users. While ChatGPT boasts 900 million weekly active users, consumers represent a huge computing cost, and Microsoft’s enterprise clients are the path to profitability. OpenAI disclosed last week that it has a monthly revenue of $2 billion but did not reveal its losses, predicting it will burn through $115 billion in cash by 2029. Olson also pointed out an embarrassing fact for OpenAI: Microsoft recently introduced Claude in Copilot to review the accuracy and completeness of GPT outputs, which she called ‘a visible and embarrassing gap.’ She suggests that Altman should treat Microsoft less like an ATM and more like a product partner, leveraging Microsoft’s enterprise distribution advantages to pave a more stable path for the IPO.