# OpenAI

AI company founded in 2015 as a nonprofit by [[sam-altman]], Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, and Greg Brockman. Maker of ChatGPT and the GPT model series. Headquartered in San Francisco (two 11-story glass towers, formerly Uber's offices).

Converted from nonprofit → capped-profit (2019, to secure Microsoft's $13B investment) → full for-profit (Oct 2025). The associated OpenAI Foundation is now a 26% stakeholder. Reportedly preparing for IPO at a potential $1T valuation.

Most recent private funding round raised $120B+ — the largest in history. Key partners: Microsoft (exclusive cloud provider for stateless models), Amazon ($50B enterprise deal), SoftBank/Oracle/MGX (Stargate joint venture).

The company's founding premise — that AI required an unusual corporate structure with safety prioritized over profit — has been progressively dismantled. Safety teams (superalignment, AGI-readiness) dissolved. Future of Life Institute grades OpenAI an F on existential safety.

Key departures: Ilya Sutskever (co-founded Safe Superintelligence), Dario and Daniela Amodei (founded Anthropic), Jan Leike (joined Anthropic), Mira Murati (own startup), Elon Musk (founded xAI, suing OpenAI).

See [[altman-new-yorker-profile]] for the detailed investigative account of the company's governance.