According to Bloomberg, OpenAI has sold more than 700,000 ChatGPT licences across around 35 public universities, giving the company an early lead in what is shaping up to be a fiercely competitive education market.

The deals cover both students and faculty, positioning ChatGPT not just as a study aid but as a general-purpose assistant for writing, coding, data analysis and research.

That momentum stands in contrast to rivals such as Microsoft, whose Copilot tools are often bundled into existing software agreements but have seen slower uptake among students.

In many cases, Copilot is used more by staff than undergraduates, while ChatGPT has gained traction as a standalone product that students actively choose to use.

OpenAI is supposedly aiming to win over users early, before habits and workflows are locked in.

Universities, meanwhile, appear increasingly willing to embrace AI rather than police it.

Many institutions now frame ChatGPT as something to be taught responsibly, rather than banned outright, reflecting a broader shift in attitudes toward generative AI in education.

That early foothold in classrooms comes as OpenAI’s ambitions - and valuation - continue to balloon.

Meanwhile, separate reports suggest the company has held preliminary talks with investors about raising up to $100 billion at a valuation of around $750 billion, a sharp jump from the roughly $500 billion figure attached to a secondary share sale earlier this year.

OpenAI is also widely reported to be laying the groundwork for a future IPO, potentially as soon as 2026, with some projections valuing the company at close to $1 trillion.

The scale of those numbers underlines how central education could be to OpenAI’s long-term strategy.

If ChatGPT becomes the default AI assistant for students today, it may well shape how the next generation of workers writes, codes and thinks tomorrow - a powerful advantage in an increasingly crowded AI market.