OpenAI rockets to record $20B revenue

ALSO: How to apply AI to real work problems in 5 minutes

Author

Zain Kahn
January 20, 2026

Welcome back, Superhuman. The barrier to building your own app is going down by the day. Vibecode just released a new app generation platform powered by Claude Code that builds your mobile app with new features like payments and publishing straight to the App Store.

Today: OpenAI’s record revenue run, learn how to apply AI to real work problems in 5 minutes, and get the latest prompts and trending social posts.

TODAY IN AI

Click here to learn how to create and deploy full-stack apps on the web with just one click using Vibecode’s latest update. Source: Vibecode

1. Vibecode rolls out the "first" full-stack vibe coding platform: The new update allows for one-click web deployment to Vibecode’s mobile-focused platform that's already published over 5,000 apps. Powered by Claude Code, the tool transforms plain-English prompts into web and mobile apps complete with responsive frontends, backends, and database setups. Learn how to get started here or take it for a spin here.

2. OpenAI says it crossed $20B in revenue: According to CFO Sarah Friar, the ChatGPT maker blew past $20B in annual recurring revenue in 2025, up from $6B the year before. That’s a near 233% jump — growth that tracks directly with the company's expansion in compute capacity from 0.6 to 1.9 GWs. OpenAI is now pivoting toward "practical adoption" in health, science, and enterprise while reportedly gearing up to launch its first physical device later this year.

3. New open-source models generate images in less than a second: German startup Black Forest Labs has released Flux.2 [klein], a pair of open-source models (4B and 9B parameters) that create images in under 0.5 seconds on modern hardware. The 4B parameter version ships under Apache 2.0, meaning enterprises can use it commercially without shelling out a dime. Watch it in action here.

Slack was already a major productivity enhancer for us, but the new Slackbot changes everything.

Slackbot is a personal agent built directly into your Slack workspace. Slackbot handles the busywork by understanding your work, collaborators, and communication style, letting you focus on high-priority tasks.

  • Search messages, files, people, and workflow history

  • Chat with Slackbot just like you would a teammate

  • Get all the power of AI with enterprise-grade security

The best part? You don’t need any experience with agents or even AI to use Slackbot.

FROM THE FRONTIER

There are many reasons to criticize AI. Water usage might not be one of them.

Made with Midjourney

The datacenter water debate may be missing the point. Datacenter water usage has become a lightning rod for AI criticism in recent months. But some researchers claim that the reality might be far more complicated than the headlines suggest.

Research firm SemiAnalysis crunched the numbers. The firm zeroed in on xAI's massive Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, one of the largest data centers in the world, and compared it to an average In-N-Out burger joint. They found that Colossus’ annual water footprint of 346M gallons equals about two-and-a-half In-N-Out locations.

Diving deeper. The researchers calculated that Colossus could generate about 3.9 quadrillion tokens per year, translating to 2.7B output tokens per burger's worth of water. Put another way, one burger equals using Grok for 668 years straight. With thousands of burger joints across the country, concerns about data center water consumption may seem well-intentioned but ultimately misguided if the numbers are correct.

Experts warn against dismissing concerns entirely. Water use is highly location-dependent, and a facility that's sustainable in one region could devastate another's water supply. According to Cornell researchers, situations need to be evaluated based on local water availability and climate in order to have a more informed debate.

ProfAI helps your team find and build real AI use cases, not just summarize notes. Here’s how to create an AI use case with ProfAI:

  • Create a free ProfAI account

  • Describe your role, projects, and responsibilities

  • Open the Use Cases tab

  • Pick a recommended use case or create your own

  • Follow ProfAI’s prompts to personalize the use case to your work

  • Personalize your use case using ProfAI’s prompts

  • Get a customized action plan and a ready-to-use prompt

  • Open it in your LLM, then save or share it with your team

Now you have an AI use case that you can re-use, share, and iterate on.

This new report breaks down key innovations in workflow orchestration, multi-agent collaboration, reliability, and autonomy. Use Glean and Gartner’s frameworks to ground agents in company knowledge and govern operations with confidence.

IN THE KNOW

What’s trending on socials and headlines today

💥 Holiday Hit: A designer built an AI-coded advent calendar using “vibe coding” that’s currently blowing up on social media. She claims that the no-login app has hit over 20k users for just $230 in costs.

🧑‍🏫 Claude 101: A creator just dropped a 5-hour masterclass on everything you need to know about getting the most out of Claude, racking up hundreds of thousands of views on socials.

⚡️ "Shocking" Fail: A social media user tried to "vibe-build" an electrical circuit by asking ChatGPT for instructions, and it went about just as well as you’d expect.

⚙️ App Factory: Viral startup Manus AI just dropped App Publishing, a tool that lets non-coders build apps and push them straight to Google Play Internal Testing or TestFlight without all the technical jargon.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 New & Trending AI Tools

  • 🧠 Scroll*: When accuracy really matters, use AI-powered experts. Scroll automates knowledge workflows across documentation, RFPs, sales enablement, and more. 

  • 🖼️ Lynote: Summarizes content and instantly creates notes with AI.

  • 🤖 NoteitHub: Turn GPT chats into to-dos, journals, and reminders.

  • 📱 GLM-Image: Edit images professionally using text prompts.

  • 📃 Crevid: Generate videos and images from text or images with AI.

* indicates a promoted tool, if any

PROMPT STATION

Read long articles faster

Prompt: You are a reading assistant. The user will provide you with an article to read. Please thoroughly read the article and generate a guide and a simplified, easy-to-read version of the article with the following requirements:

## Your output:

Mind Map: First, generate a mind map for the entire guide.

Summary: Next, provide a summary of the entire text, limited to 400 words.

Simplified Article: Then, present your rewritten, simplified, and easy-to-read version of the article.

## Requirements for Rewriting:

Word Count: Compress the word count to half of the original, and ensure it does not exceed 3,000 words.

Author’s Tone: Simulate the original author's tone.

Formatting: Format the output to ensure a visually appealing layout and ease of reading.

Visual Elements: Insert tables, charts, diagrams, SVGs, and other visual elements in appropriate places to enhance readability.

Source: r/ChatGPTPromptGenius

Flavor Fields

Source: richestbranding

Midjourney Prompt: A highly creative, handcrafted-style illustration of a farming landscape made entirely from natural spices and seeds. Rolling farm fields are formed using vibrant red chilli powder, golden turmeric powder, and earthy brown cumin seeds arranged in textured rows. Small trees are crafted from spice leaves and stems, growing naturally from the fields. A traditional tractor is artistically built from spice elements, with wheels made of cumin seeds, body shaded in deep paprika red, and fine detailing using mustard and coriander seeds. Soil layers beneath the farm are shown as cross-sections made from crushed spices, seeds, and grains, giving a rich agricultural depth. The overall style is artistic, organic, and premium--resembling handcrafted food art or spice mosaic illustration. Warm earthy tones, high detail, clean white background, soft shadows, editorial food illustration style, suitable for premium spice brand visuals. --ar 2:3 --style raw

Tip: You can use the same prompt in Gemini or ChatGPT.

Whenever you’re ready to take the next step

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Until next time — Zain, Theodore, & the Superhuman AI team