Most US government contractors make a lot of money. They are on cost-plus contracts: Cost + Margin.

This means OpenAI through ChatGPT Gov could have made a lot of money by working with the Government over the next few years.

However, Deepseek arriving now is bad timing for them.

Imagine finishing deals with Biden and Kamala, then Trump and Musk win, with Musk wanting to reduce Government spending, and then Deepseek also arrives with their training costs. Not a great week for OpenAI especially when they would have wanted to celebrate their ChatGPT Gov launch.

P.S I learned about US defense contractors and their margins by listening to many hours of 20VC podcast episodes about US American Dynamism startups. Take a look at how well US defense contractor stocks have performed in the last ten years to verify how good of a business defense contracting is.