Codex: from scrappy side project to 40M+ weekly users in under a year
danshipper · x · 2026-10-16
Dan Shipper's long-read on OpenAI Codex: a year ago it was a quiet team without PMF; now Codex has absorbed the ChatGPT desktop app, Codex plus ChatGPT for Work serve 40M+ weekly users, and leader Thibault Sottiaux runs all of OpenAI's core products. Key move: training a dedicated model line separate from ChatGPT, with researchers and product working side by side. Also profiles Andrew Ambrosino.
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