OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly teases a "very strong" model internally that can "really accelerate the economy"

THE DECODER / 3/25/2026

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Key Points

  • OpenAI has reportedly completed pretraining for its next major model, codenamed “Spud,” according to CEO Sam Altman’s internal comments.
  • Altman characterized the model as “very strong” and suggested it could “really accelerate the economy,” framing the effort as broadly impactful beyond product features.
  • The report implies OpenAI is progressing toward a subsequent major release, with internal evaluation already underway.
  • The lack of external technical details leaves key questions open about Spud’s capabilities, deployment timeline, and how it may differ from current-generation systems.

OpenAI has reportedly finished pretraining its next major AI model, codenamed "Spud." CEO Sam Altman says it can "really accelerate the economy."

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