ChatGPT 'Code Red', Dynamic SERP, Local AI Visibility, AI Shopping on the Rise

Now It's 'Code Red' for ChatGPT

When ChatGPT launched roughly three years ago, Google was knocked off-guard and declared "code red" (nearly a tech cliche) to deal with the perceived existential-competitive threat. Since its launch, ChatGPT has grown to more than 800 million monthly users. The company projects it will have more than 200 million paying subscribers by 2030, but could face "headwinds" from Google's Gemini 3. The latter has rattled OpenAI, which has now itself declared "code red." Gemini 3 was released last month. It's received widespread praise, topping AI leaderboards on several measures. Google also says that Gemini's MAUs hit 650 million in October driven in part by Nano Banana, but even more significantly by Google's relentless promotion of Gemini across all its major products – without which it would have far fewer users. With ad revenue growing and Gemini 3 momentum, the wind now seems to be at Google's back. Google can fund its AI ambitions with ad revenue, while OpenAI has to keep raising or borrowing money and may never be able to pay it all back. OpenAI's code red means that it will postpone or delay other projects, including (probably) ads and potentially shopping. Meanwhile on another front, OpenAI faces intensifying B2B competition for developers and enterprises from Claude/Anthropic.