OpenAI teases Dots for Europe, but its Berlin DevDay was really about building a platform
Key Points
- OpenAI's AI assistant Dots should roll out more widely in Europe within a few weeks, following talks with regulators. The company also says weekly active Codex users in Germany have grown twentyfold since January 2026.
- OpenAI blames high resource costs and weak customer demand for the lack of a model that handles video inputs and for shutting down Sora. Coding tools and agents currently take priority.
- With offerings like the Agents API and access to 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users, OpenAI wants to lock developers and businesses more tightly into its own infrastructure.
At DevDay Exchange 2026 in Berlin, OpenAI mostly rehashed announcements it had already made in San Francisco. A few new details came out about the European launch of Dots, Codex usage, and the Q&A session.
Romain Huet, OpenAI's head of developer experience, said the AI assistant Dots should become more widely available in Europe "in a few weeks" following talks with regulators. Personal Pro accounts in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the UK are still locked out of the service. Certain business accounts can already get access.
In Germany, weekly active Codex users have grown twentyfold since January 2026, according to OpenAI. Back in June, we reported a more than sevenfold increase based on the company's own figures. OpenAI again didn't share absolute numbers. The company says nearly one in five desktop users taps skills for documents, presentations, or spreadsheets, which means they're using the coding tool for general office work.
During the Q&A, someone asked why OpenAI still doesn't offer a model that understands video sequences the way Google's Gemini does. Management said customers have barely asked for it. So the company hasn't prioritized the feature beyond single-frame analysis.
The panel again blamed extreme resource demands for shutting down the Sora video generator in March, saying customers mainly wanted coding models and agents. OpenAI didn't rule out bringing it back later.
Because these agents run on their own virtual computers and AI-generated code is growing fast, demand for traditional processor power is rising too. To cut CPU load, OpenAI has a dedicated team that combs through its internal codebases every week.
OpenAI wants developers locked into its platform, not just its models
Beyond the individual product updates, the event showed how tightly OpenAI wants to lock developers and businesses into its ecosystem. With the Agents API, OpenAI runs the agent infrastructure itself. Plugins and web apps give developers more ways to offer their own products on its platform.
The pitch is less technical work and access to what OpenAI says are 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users. The model looks a lot like earlier app stores. Developers build the apps, and OpenAI supplies the infrastructure and distribution channel.
Keeping the underlying runtime, Codex Harness, open source doesn't undercut this strategy. Developers can read the code and run it themselves. But anyone who relies on managed services, platform-specific integrations, and finding customers through ChatGPT will likely have a hard time switching ecosystems later.
So the message in Berlin wasn't only that the models keep getting better. OpenAI wants developers to build their businesses directly on its infrastructure.
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