Reuters reported exclusively that CEO Sam Altman has hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 company executives to pitch a version of the generative AI product for corporate use, according to attendees.

Three of these gatherings took place in the U.S. and the UK this month and have not been reported previously.

Attendees tell Reuters OpenAI in some cases is going head to head with financial backer Microsoft.

The software giant is the largest investor in OpenAI and offers access to OpenAI's technology through its Azure cloud and by selling Microsoft 365 Copilot, a productivity tool powered by OpenAI's models targeting enterprises.

Some executives in the audience of the events asked why they should pay for ChatGPT Enterprise if they are already customers of Microsoft.

Altman and others have responded that paying for the enterprise service allowed them to work with the OpenAI team directly among other reasons.

OpenAI, last valued at $86 billion in a secondary sale, has been trying to diversify its revenue stream since its chatbot ChatGPT quickly gained popularity in late 2022.

Sources have said it's on track to achieve the $1 billion revenue target it projected for 2024.