During a Reddit AMA, Sam Altman says GPT-5 likely won't come this year as OpenAI faces “a lot of limitations and hard decisions” in allocating compute resources
It is coming soon, under one name or another Shraddha Sharma / Cryptopolitan : ChatGPT wants to take on Google, and Microsoft with new launch TechRadar : ChatGPT-5 won't be coming in 2025, according to Sam Altman - but superintelligence is ‘achievable’ with today's hardware Markus Kasanmascheff / WinBuzzer : Sam Altman: OpenAI Model Rollout Delays Caused by Compute Constraints Pradeep Viswanathan / Neowin : Sam Altman and OpenAI executives outline future plans in Reddit AMA Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says lack of compute capacity is delaying the company's products Erin Snodgrass / Business Insider : Sam Altman said he ‘sometimes’ used ChatGPT to answer Reddit AMA questions Grace Priscilla Teo / Tech in Asia : Compute limits hinder OpenAI product timelines: CEO Altman Mastodon: @Kierkegaanks@beige.party : @Techmeme or maybe they hit the hard limit for general use llm X: @kimmonismus : I read the whole AMA with @OpenAI and especially @sama . In this thread I post everything they said about Sora, new models, AGI, o1 and so on. Usually I don't do threads, but this time: it's a 🧵 [image] Kylie Robison / @kyliebytes : OpenAI CEO Sam Altman did a Reddit AMA today w/ CPO Kevin Weil, SVP of Research Mark Chen, VP of Engineering Srinivas Narayanan, and chief scientist Jakub Pachocki. Here's some of the highlights 🧵 [image] @openai : Reddit AMA with @sama, @markchen90, @kevinweil, @snsf, and @merettm starts now: https://www.reddit.com/... Sam Altman / @sama : doing an AMA on reddit w/some of the team! https://www.reddit.com/... LinkedIn: Hayden Field : OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Thursday that his company's next big AI model release likely won't come this year as the company is “prioritizing shipping” … Forums: r/ChatGPT : AMA with OpenAI's Sam Altman, Kevin Weil, Srinivas Narayanan, and Mark Chen
Context & Ripple Effects
OpenAI had already signaled that its May product event would focus on ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates rather than GPT-5, while Altman had earlier said the company would not train GPT-5 for “some time.” The AMA makes compute allocation—not merely branding or sequencing—the stated constraint on the next frontier-model rollout.
The disclosure matters because OpenAI is balancing model development against product delivery. A subsequent delay to Advanced Voice Mode for safety work also showed that major ChatGPT releases can be gated by operational requirements beyond a model’s apparent readiness.
First-order effects
- OpenAI must prioritize limited compute among training, inference, and product launches, pushing a likely GPT-5 release beyond the year and constraining its near-term rollout schedule.
- ChatGPT users and commercial customers receive improvements through existing-model updates rather than an expected next-generation model, while OpenAI faces tougher trade-offs over where capacity produces the most value.
Second-order effects
- Rivals including Google and Microsoft gain time to advance their own AI products while OpenAI’s launch cadence is governed by capacity availability rather than solely by research progress.
- Compute becomes a product-planning input: features and model access may be staged or tiered as OpenAI protects capacity for the highest-priority workloads.
Third-order effects
- If such constraints persist, frontier AI competition will increasingly hinge on the ability to secure and operate compute at scale, not just on model research quality.
- The episode points toward more explicit governance of scarce model access—who gets which capability and when—as providers ration capacity across consumer and business use.
The trend: Frontier AI is becoming an infrastructure-constrained business in which compute allocation shapes both model roadmaps and access to capabilities.