OpenAI Aims To Acquire WindSurf To Compete With DeepSeek

Keeping Up With The Competition

The move follows the January 2025 launch of DeepSeek R1, an open-source AI model trained at a fraction of the cost of leading systems, challenging assumptions about the need for massive compute to achieve high performance.

DeepSeek’s release of DeepSeek-V3, a powerful open-source chatbot developed for just $6 million, raised alarms due to its performance and low cost compared to U.S. competitors like OpenAI.

A U.S. Select Committee report on April 16th accused DeepSeek of funneling American user data to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and unlawfully using U.S. AI models in its training.

Profit Still Out Of Reach

OpenAI expects to triple its revenue in 2025 to $12.7 billion, driven by paid subscriptions. The company hit 1 million premium business users in late 2024, but CEO Sam Altman says profitability may not come until 2029.

Altman noted in February 2025 that AI usage costs are dropping rapidly, about 10x every 12 months, though high expenses and centralization remain challenges.