The AI company is facing strong competition from rivals such as Anthropic.
OpenAI is aiming to nearly double its headcount by the end of 2026, according to a Financial Times report.
The publication estimated that current staff numbers of 4,500 would reach around 8,000 by the end of the year, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter, and added that the new roles would largely be across product development, engineering, research and sales.
Last month, Irish media reports suggested OpenAI was looking for a new, larger Dublin premises for its European headquarters, having established its Irish presence in 2023. Then, CEO Sam Altman said that the company chose Ireland because it “blends a talented workforce with support for innovation and responsible business growth”.
The company is currently hiring in cities in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia.
OpenAI is facing stiff competition in its field from rivals such as Anthropic, which recently announced the planned expansion of its Dublin operation and the creation of 200 new jobs by 2027 in engineering, sales, finance, legal and compliance, and operations.
As of November 2025, Anthropic had around 300,000 enterprise customers, while OpenAI had more than 1m, but recent data shows that Anthropic is now capturing more than 73pc of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, while OpenAI is down to around 27pc.
Last week, reports surfaced around a planned OpenAI desktop ‘superapp’ that would combine its AI chatbot, coding tool and web browser, although no launch date was yet known.
Meanwhile, Anthropic’s chatbot Claude also overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded app in the US last month after Anthropic began engaging in a public feud with the country’s Department of Defense over AI safety concerns.
In late February, a $110bn funding round brought OpenAI’s valuation to $730bn. The round featured major contributions from Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank – the latter of which had its outlook lowered by S&P earlier this month due to a perceived over-reliance on heavy investment in OpenAI.
In February, OpenAI hired OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger to develop its “next generation of personal agents”, and earlier this year began implementing age-prediction for users.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the World Economic Forum 2024. Image: World Economic Forum/Benedikt von Loebell via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)