OpenAI's $14 Billion Loss and User Betrayal

#keep4o Movement

OpenAI made a strange decision: to remove GPT-4o.

"I miss 4o so so so much I just want to talk to it. I've tried many alternatives but they don't work, instead just make me cry. @openai you RUINED our lives." — @shuvivii__

This isn't just one user complaining. It's a movement. The hashtags #keep4o, #keep4oAPI, and #FireSamAltman have been used extensively in the past week.

Users' feelings for GPT-4o aren't rational. It's emotional attachment.

"Where would OpenAI's valuation come from today without 4o? Ungrateful. Completely offended the consumer end, destroyed the most precious foundational core assets, and destroyed user loyalty." — @1024Adele

★ This is true. OpenAI's consumer business is its foundation. Without the ChatGPT user base, OpenAI is just an API company.

Reddit Censorship

What's even stranger is what's happening on Reddit.

"Both main subs (r/ChatGPT and r/OpenAI) are nuking complaints. r/ChatGPT started doing this 6 months ago. @OpenAI just so you know, this is not how you improve." — @yv_thorne

This is a typical mistake large companies make when dealing with criticism: pretending the criticism doesn't exist.

★ Censoring user feedback won't make the problem disappear. It will only make the most opinionated users leave.

Musk's Mockery

Elon Musk has never hidden his views on OpenAI.

"OpenAI is going to eat Microsoft alive." — @elonmusk

He said this in August 2025. It seemed like an exaggeration at the time. Now it looks like a prediction.

"I'm the reason OpenAI exists. It wouldn't exist without me. I came up with the name. The name OpenAI refers to open source." — @elonmusk

Musk's claims are controversial. But one thing is clear: OpenAI is no longer the "open" AI company he helped create.

Six or Seven Fronts

One user's observation:

"Completely offending the consumer end, destroying user loyalty, while simultaneously opening six or seven fronts, none of which are making big splashes, changing the development route every six months, is economic suicide for any company." — @1024Adele

This is accurate. OpenAI is doing too many things:

• ChatGPT
• API business
• Enterprise version
• Sora (video generation)
• Search (integrated with Nerve)
• OpenClaw (agent framework)
• Possibly projects we don't know about

★ When a company fights on six or seven fronts simultaneously, it can't win on any of them.

What Does a $14 Billion Loss Mean?

The loss itself isn't the problem. The problem is what the loss bought.

Amazon lost money for 20 years, but it built a dominant e-commerce empire. Uber lost money for years, but it changed the way people travel.

What did OpenAI's $14 billion loss buy?

• ChatGPT users? Yes, but they are leaving
• API developers? Yes, but Anthropic and Google are competing for them
• Enterprise customers? Maybe, but Microsoft is also in this market

★ Losses are investments. But if you're losing money while alienating your most loyal users, it's not an investment. It's self-destruction.

OpenAI's Real Problem

OpenAI's problem isn't technology. Its models are still among the best.

OpenAI's problem isn't money. It has Microsoft's support and unlimited funding.

OpenAI's problem is: it doesn't know who it is.

Is it a research lab? It used to be. Is it a product company? It's trying to be. Is it a platform? It's moving in that direction.

★ A company can do many things. But it can't be everything at once.

Bottom Line

OpenAI is experiencing a classic tech company crisis: being lost in success.

It has the best technology. It has the most users. It has the most money.

But it's losing users' trust. And once trust is lost, it's harder to recover than technology.