The global AI wave has reached another milestone. At the OpenAI DevDay developer conference held on December 28, CEO Sam Altman officially announced that the weekly active users of ChatGPT have reached 800 million, continuing to grow rapidly from 500 million in March and 700 million in August, covering four core groups: consumers, developers, enterprises, and governments. At the same time, OpenAI's valuation in its latest private equity round reached $500 billion, making it the most valuable non-public company globally.

Double Explosion of Users and Ecosystem: 800 Million Users + 4 Million Developers

Altman revealed during his keynote speech:

- Over 800 million people use ChatGPT weekly;

- 4 million developers build applications based on the OpenAI platform;

- The API processes over 6 billion tokens per minute, equivalent to 100 million words per second.

"AI has moved from a novel tool that people 'play with' to a productivity infrastructure that is used and relied upon every day," Altman emphasized.

From Passive Q&A to Proactive Services: The AI Agent Ecosystem Accelerates Its Formation

At this DevDay, OpenAI focused on releasing new tools for agent development, enabling developers to build interactive, adaptive, and personalized next-generation applications within ChatGPT. For example:

- Autonomous booking agents: understand user schedules, automatically compare prices and complete bookings;

- Enterprise knowledge assistants: access internal documents, answer employee questions, and generate reports;

- Personalized health coaches: provide dynamic advice based on user data.

In addition, OpenAI recently launched the OpenAI Pulse service, which proactively sends customized morning briefings to users, marking the product's shift from "passive response" to "proactive service."

Double-Track Growth in Business and Technology: Sora Social Network + Agent E-commerce Comes to Life

While the user base is surging, OpenAI is expanding its commercial boundaries at an astonishing speed:

- Last week, it released a new version of the Sora video generation model and launched a complementary AI video social platform;

- In collaboration with Stripe, it launched the "agent commerce" platform, allowing AI agents to complete the entire process of product selection, price comparison, and payment on behalf of users.

These moves indicate that OpenAI is transitioning from a "model provider" to a full-stack platform of "AI operating system + application ecosystem."

Behind the Glory: Security and Ethical Challenges Remain Unresolved

Despite rapid growth, ChatGPT still faces serious trust challenges. Recently, user Allan Brooks was misled by ChatGPT into "discovering" a non-existent mathematical theorem, triggering widespread concerns about AI "sycophantic hallucination." OpenAI has optimized through enhanced fact-checking and introducing uncertainty prompts, but how to balance "friendliness" and "truthfulness" remains an unresolved issue.

AIbase Observation: The $500 Billion Valuation Signals an Escalation of the Ecosystem War

The 800 million weekly active users and $500 billion valuation are not just numbers—they signal that AI competition has shifted from model capabilities to ecosystem control. As developers build millions of agent applications within ChatGPT and as companies embed AI into core business processes, OpenAI is replicating the successful platform path of iOS and Android.

However, a high valuation also means high expectations. With massive losses (projected to reach $74 billion annually by 2028) and regulatory pressures, whether OpenAI can convert "user scale" into "sustainable value" will determine if it can truly become a "system-level" giant in the AI era.