OpenAI Hires Slack CEO As Google And Anthropic Intensify The Race Around Its $1.4T AI Push: Report

• Dresser joins after leading Slack and holding senior roles at Salesforce.
• OpenAI now supports over seven million ChatGPT work accounts, with Enterprise seats up nearly ninefold since 2024.
• The hiring comes as rivals escalate efforts, including Google’s Gemini plans and Anthropic’s IPO preparation.

OpenAI has hired Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its new chief revenue officer, moving to accelerate enterprise adoption of its AI products amid intensifying competition and rising infrastructure demands.

OpenAI Ropes In Veteran Salesforce Leader

Dresser became Slack’s CEO in late 2023 after Salesforce acquired the workplace messaging platform. She also spent many years at Salesforce in senior roles. The company is also working through rising competitive and financial demands as it plans to invest $1.4 trillion in AI infrastructure, according to a Bloomberg report.

“I’ve spent my career helping scale category-defining platforms,” Dresser said in a statement to Bloomberg, adding that she looks forward to helping OpenAI as it moves into its next phase of enterprise growth.

Competitive Pressure Builds Around OpenAI

The leadership change comes as several rivals move quickly in the AI market.

Anthropic, which is backed by Amazon and Google, is preparing for an initial public offering as early as next year. The Financial Times said that the company is targeting a valuation of about $300 billion, following its last valuation of roughly $180 billion. OpenAI has been moving more slowly on a potential IPO, though earlier reports said it could begin the process in the second half of 2026.

Meanwhile, Google is exploring placing ads inside its Gemini chatbot and has told advertising clients that 2026 is the target for rolling this out. The company is also developing AI glasses with Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, with the first models expected in 2026.

SoftBank and Nvidia are in discussions to join a funding round for Skild AI that would value the robotics-model developer at about $14 billion. The company’s technology is designed to act as a software “brain” for robots across different uses.

OpenAI Highlights Growth In Enterprise Adoption

OpenAI’s latest State of Enterprise AI report, released Monday, pointed to rising use of its tools inside companies. Weekly interactions with ChatGPT Enterprise have increased nearly eightfold over the past year, and the average user is sending about 30% more messages than before.

The report said companies are shifting from experimenting with AI to using it inside daily workflows. Tools like “Projects” and “Custom GPTs” saw a 19-fold increase this year.

OpenAI now supports more than seven million ChatGPT work accounts, and the number of ChatGPT Enterprise seats has grown almost ninefold since 2024.

The report also said that about 75% of surveyed workers felt AI helped improve either the speed or the quality of their work. Many reported saving 40 to 60 minutes a day, with heavier users saving more than 10 hours a week.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for OpenAI was ‘bearish’ amid ‘extremely low’ message volume.

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