An internal letter from Greg Brockman, obtained by Wired last Friday at 8:30 a.m. PDT, revealed OpenAI's plan to merge ChatGPT and Codex into a unified agent experience for all users. The move ends the fragmented approach of maintaining separate product lines for ChatGPT, Codex, API, and the Atlas browser. All three products will be consolidated into a single app under Brockman's leadership.
The timing is notable: Google I/O kicks off in three days.
Altman's calculus on side projects
The restructuring traces back to late 2025, when Sam Altman declared a "code red" internally, urging the company to refocus on core ChatGPT. The reasoning was clear: computing power couldn't sustain a personal assistant, a coding product line, and other experimental projects simultaneously. Brockman himself said on a podcast that compute was "not enough to support a full personal assistant plus the Codex line."
Over the following months, several side projects were shut down:
- Sora (video generation app) — halted in April, as daily costs far exceeded revenue, also scuttling a Disney investment.
- OpenAI for Science — discontinued around the same time.
- ChatGPT adult mode — scrapped after internal and external backlash.
Brockman's May 16 letter institutionalized the shift: no more side quests; everyone works on the same app. His exact words:
"We're consolidating our product efforts to execute with maximum focus toward the agentic future, to win across both consumer and enterprise."
The challenge of migrating 900 million users
The scale of the reorganization is evident in personnel changes:
- Thibault Sottiaux — from Codex CEO to head of core product and platform, overseeing consumer, enterprise, and developer lines.
- Nick Turley — from growing ChatGPT to 900 million weekly active users to leading Enterprise and key industry products.
- Ashley Alexander — former Instagram VP, recently managing health products, now takes over ChatGPT consumer product line.
- Fidji Simo — AGI Deployment CEO, on medical leave since early April; contributed to the restructuring plan, return date undisclosed.
Putting the Codex lead in charge of core products sends a clear signal: Codex is OpenAI's fastest-growing, most agent-like product, and the reorganization aims to align others with it. The integration roadmap is set: Codex will first expand from coding to productivity tasks (document writing, scheduling, research), then absorb ChatGPT and the Atlas browser. Ultimately, 900 million weekly active users will be migrated into a unified app with a built-in browser, code execution layer, and conversational interface. But migrating such a massive user base is rarely smooth.
Cursor and Anthropic are the real pressure
Why now? Officially, it's preparation for a Q4 IPO targeting an $852 billion valuation, simplifying the product story for investors. But the numbers reveal more urgent factors:
- Cursor: $2 billion annualized revenue, with a valuation reportedly in talks at $50 billion, focused solely on AI coding.
- Anthropic's Claude Code: Gaining traction among enterprise developers, with a rumored $90 billion valuation round in the works.
- Web search traffic share: Over the past 12 months, Gemini rose from 5.7% to 21.5%; ChatGPT fell from 86.7% to 64.5%.
Cursor alone is approaching OpenAI's Codex in scale, Anthropic is eating into enterprise territory, and Google is catching up in search. OpenAI can't afford to fight on multiple fronts. Consolidating into one app is essentially "concentrating firepower."
The elephant in the room: Musk's lawsuit
Brockman's expanded role includes not just product oversight but also AI infrastructure (including the Stargate data center) — and he is a key witness in Elon Musk's lawsuit against Altman. The suit seeks $150 billion and aims to dismantle OpenAI's conversion from nonprofit to for-profit. Juggling product strategy, infrastructure, and court appearances is no small feat. By bundling these responsibilities under Brockman, OpenAI likely aims to avoid a handoff after Simo's leave and carry the momentum through to the Q4 IPO.
Google I/O in three days
The timing of the letter — sent Friday, May 16, three days before Google I/O on Tuesday, May 19 — is strategic. Sundar Pichai is reportedly set to unveil Gemini 3.5, the Omni video model, and Android XR glasses. OpenAI's internal announcement signals to the world that it has consolidated its forces. The answer to "how many things should we do?" is now clear: one thing, one app, all users. Sora, OpenAI for Science, and adult mode are the casualties of that focus. Whether 900 million users will migrate smoothly and whether Codex's expansion into a general agent will succeed — we'll see in six months.
Sources: CocoLoop, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman takes charge of product strategy (TechCrunch); OpenAI merges ChatGPT and Codex under Greg Brockman. The side quests are over. (The Next Web); Greg Brockman consolidates OpenAI's product teams to build an "agentic future" (The Decoder)