OpenAI
- HQ / base
- San Francisco
- Founded
- Dec 2015
- Money
- $500B+ valuation (2025); Microsoft $135B stake
- Status
- —
Founded as a nonprofit by Altman, Musk, Brockman, Sutskever et al. explicitly citing existential-risk concerns (Open Phil granted it $30M in 2017); capped-profit 2019; ChatGPT (Nov 2022) detonated the current era. Board crisis Nov 2023 (EA-linked directors Toner & McCauley voted to fire Altman; reversed in five days) discredited EA governance leverage. Superalignment team dissolved May 2024 (Leike: 'safety culture has taken a backseat to shiny products'). Restructure completed Oct 28, 2025: OpenAI Foundation (nonprofit, 26%, $130B equity, $25B initial health/AI-resilience commitment) atop OpenAI Group PBC (Microsoft 27%). Released the GPT-5.6 family on Jul 9, 2026, led by the flagship GPT-5.6 Sol model. Subpoenaed Encode and other safety nonprofits (2025); its executives back Leading the Future PAC.
Connections
- Dario Amodeiex-VP research (led GPT-2/3)
- Jack Clarkex-policy director
- Jan Leikequit superalignment (May 2024)
- Coefficient Giving (Open Philanthropy)$30M grant (2017) + board seat (Karnofsky)
- Helen Tonerboard member; voted to fire Altman (2023)
- Tasha McCauleyboard member (2023 crisis)
- Encodesubpoenaed by (2025); amicus vs restructuring
- Leopold Aschenbrenner / Situational Awarenesssuperalignment; fired 2024
- Paul Christianoex-alignment team (invented RLHF)
- Beth Barnesex-staff
- METRpre-deployment evaluator
- Apollo Researchscheming evals (o1)
- Daniel Kokotajlorefused NDA; forced policy reversal (2024)
- Epoch AIFrontierMath funding controversy (2025)
- Sam AltmanCEO
- Ilya Sutskever / SSIco-founder; board coup; left 2024
- PauseAI (Global & US)protests outside offices
- Frontier Model Forum / AI Safety Fundmember
- Midas Project / AI Lab WatchOpenAI Files watchdog
- Thinking Machines LabMurati/Schulman diaspora
- Meta Superintelligence Labstalent-raid rivalry
- DeepSeekR1 shock; rivalry reframed the race (Jan 2025)
- NVIDIAup to $100B LOI (Sept 2025)
- Stargate (OpenAI/Oracle/SoftBank)$500B datacenter JV
- Reid Hoffmanearly donor; board 2019–23
- Emmett Shear / Softmaxinterim CEO (Nov 2023 crisis)
- OpenAI whistleblower eraletters, NDAs, subpoenas, Balaji case
- Gillian Hadfieldsenior policy advisor 2018–23
- Dream NYCdonor is OpenAI staffer ($200k)