History of OpenAI in Timeline

OpenAI is a leading American AI organization founded in 2015, aiming to develop safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI). It is known for its contributions to the field, particularly the GPT family of large language models, the DALL-E series of text-to-image models, and Sora, a text-to-video model. The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 significantly boosted public interest in generative AI.

December 2015: First Employees Hired

In December 2015, Brockman hired nine AI researchers as the first employees of OpenAI.

December 2015: OpenAI Founded

In December 2015, OpenAI Inc. was founded as an American artificial intelligence organization.

2015: Motivation for Creating OpenAI

In 2015, Musk and Altman stated their motivation for creating OpenAI was partly due to concerns about AI safety and existential risk from artificial general intelligence.

April 2016: OpenAI Gym Public Beta Release

In April 2016, OpenAI released a public beta of "OpenAI Gym", its platform for reinforcement learning research.

August 2016: Nvidia Gifts DGX-1 Supercomputer

In August 2016, Nvidia gifted its first DGX-1 supercomputer to OpenAI to help it train larger and more complex AI models.

December 2016: Universe Software Platform Release

In December 2016, OpenAI released "Universe", a software platform for measuring and training an AI's general intelligence across games, websites, and other applications.

2016: Altman on singularity

During a 2016 conversation about technological singularity, Altman said, "We don't plan to release all of our source code" and mentioned a plan to "allow wide swaths of the world to elect representatives to a new governance board".

2016: Expenses on first employees

In 2016, OpenAI spent $7 million on its first 52 employees.

2017: Cloud Computing Expenses

In 2017, OpenAI spent $7.9 million, a quarter of its functional expenses, on cloud computing alone.

2018: Musk Resigns from OpenAI Board

In 2018, Elon Musk resigned from his Board of Directors seat at OpenAI due to a potential future conflict of interest with Tesla's AI development.

2018: Musk's Departure

In the early years before his 2018 departure, Elon Musk said that the best way to ensure that the future is good, is to empower as many people as possible to have AI.

2018: Training OpenAI's Dota 2 bots

In the summer of 2018, training OpenAI's Dota 2 bots required renting 128,000 CPUs and 256 GPUs from Google for multiple weeks.

February 2019: GPT-2 Announcement

In February 2019, GPT-2 was announced, gaining attention for its ability to generate human-like text.

2019: Creation of OpenAI Global, LLC

In 2019, OpenAI created OpenAI Global, LLC, a capped-profit subsidiary controlled by the nonprofit to secure additional investments.

2019: Withholding GPT-2 due to potential misuse

In 2019, OpenAI decided to withhold GPT-2 due to concerns about potential misuse, a decision criticized by openness advocates who argued for open publication to enable research and countermeasures.

2019: Transition to Capped For-Profit

In 2019, OpenAI transitioned from a non-profit to a "capped" for-profit organization, with profits capped at 100 times any investment.

2019: Collected Contributions

Until 2019, the collected total amount of contributions to OpenAI was only $130 million.

December 2020: Employees Leave to Establish Anthropic

In December 2020 and January 2021, eleven employees left OpenAI in order to establish Anthropic.

2020: GPT-3 Announcement and API Launch

In 2020, OpenAI announced GPT-3, a language model trained on large internet datasets, and launched "the API" as its first commercial product.

January 2021: Employees Leave to Establish Anthropic

In December 2020 and January 2021, eleven employees left OpenAI in order to establish Anthropic.

November 2021: OpenAI Begins Sending Data Snippets to Sama

In November 2021, OpenAI began sending snippets of data to Sama for annotation purposes, which later led to criticism regarding the content and labor practices.

2021: OpenAI Develops Whisper and Transcribes YouTube Videos

In 2021, OpenAI developed a speech recognition tool called Whisper and used it to transcribe more than one million hours of YouTube videos into text for training GPT-4. Concerns were raised internally regarding potential violations of YouTube's terms of service, but the project proceeded with the involvement of Greg Brockman.

2021: DALL-E Introduction

In 2021, OpenAI introduced DALL-E, a deep learning model adept at generating complex digital images from textual descriptions.

2021: Funding Talks and Valuation

In January 2023, OpenAI Global, LLC was in talks for funding that would value the company at $29 billion, double its 2021 value.

November 2022: ChatGPT Release

In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, which catalyzed widespread interest in generative AI.

December 2022: ChatGPT Free Preview Launch

In December 2022, OpenAI launched a free preview of ChatGPT, based on GPT-3.5, which received widespread media coverage and over a million sign-ups within the first five days.

2022: Publication of Approach to Alignment Problem

In 2022, OpenAI published its approach to the alignment problem, anticipating that aligning AGI to human values would likely be harder than aligning current AI systems and would require humanity to work together.

January 2023: Funding Talks and Valuation

In January 2023, OpenAI Global, LLC was in talks for funding that would value the company at $29 billion, double its 2021 value.

January 2023: Criticism for Outsourcing Data Annotation

In January 2023, OpenAI faced criticism for outsourcing data annotation to Sama, a San Francisco-based company employing workers in Kenya. These annotations were intended to train an AI model to detect toxic content for use in moderating content, especially from ChatGPT's training data. The outsourced workers described themselves as mentally scarred by the exposure to detailed descriptions of violence, including sexual violence, while being paid low wages.

January 23, 2023: Microsoft's $10 Billion Investment

On January 23, 2023, Microsoft announced a new US$10 billion investment in OpenAI Global, LLC over multiple years.

February 7, 2023: Microsoft Integrates AI Technology

On February 7, 2023, Microsoft announced that it was building AI technology based on the same foundation as ChatGPT into Microsoft Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365 and other products.

March 3, 2023: Reid Hoffman Resigns from Board

On March 3, 2023, Reid Hoffman resigned from his board seat to avoid conflicts of interest with his AI investments.

March 14, 2023: GPT-4 Release

On March 14, 2023, OpenAI released GPT-4 as an API and as a feature of ChatGPT Plus.

March 2023: Criticism for Lack of Transparency

In March 2023, OpenAI was criticized for its lack of transparency regarding technical details of products like GPT-4, contradicting its initial commitment to openness. This made it harder for independent researchers to replicate its work and develop safeguards. OpenAI cited competitiveness and safety concerns to justify this strategic shift.

April 2023: EU Forms Task Force on ChatGPT

In April 2023, the EU's European Data Protection Board (EDPB) formed a dedicated task force on ChatGPT "to foster cooperation and to exchange information on possible enforcement actions conducted by data protection authorities" based on the "enforcement action undertaken by the Italian data protection authority against Open AI about the Chat GPT service".

May 22, 2023: Recommendations for Superintelligence Governance

On May 22, 2023, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever posted recommendations for the governance of superintelligence, proposing an international watchdog organization and more technical safety research.

June 2023: Lawsuit Claiming Data Scraping

In June 2023, a lawsuit claimed that OpenAI scraped 300 billion words online without consent and without registering as a data broker. It was filed in San Francisco, California, by sixteen anonymous plaintiffs, who also claimed that OpenAI and its partner Microsoft unlawfully collected and used personal data.

July 2023: Superalignment Project Launch

In July 2023, OpenAI launched the superalignment project, aiming to automate alignment research using AI within 4 years.

July 2023: Copyright Infringement Lawsuit by Authors

In July 2023, OpenAI was sued for copyright infringement by authors Sarah Silverman, Matthew Butterick, Paul Tremblay, and Mona Awad.

August 2023: Acquisition of Global Illumination

In August 2023, OpenAI acquired Global Illumination, a startup developing digital infrastructure and creative tools using AI.

September 2023: Authors Guild Files Class Action Lawsuit

In September 2023, 17 authors, including George R. R. Martin, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, and Jonathan Franzen, joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company's technology was illegally using their copyrighted work.

September 21, 2023: Microsoft Copilot Rebranding

On September 21, 2023, Microsoft began rebranding all variants of its Copilot to Microsoft Copilot, including the former Bing Chat and the Microsoft 365 Copilot.

November 6, 2023: Launch of GPTs

On November 6, 2023, OpenAI launched GPTs, allowing users to create customized versions of ChatGPT.

November 14, 2023: ChatGPT Plus Sign-Ups Temporarily Suspended

On November 14, 2023, OpenAI temporarily suspended new sign-ups for ChatGPT Plus due to high demand.

November 2023: Sam Altman Removed and Reinstated as CEO

In November 2023, Sam Altman was removed as CEO of OpenAI by the board, but was reinstated five days later.

November 17, 2023: Sam Altman Removed as CEO

On November 17, 2023, Sam Altman was removed as CEO of OpenAI by the board of directors due to a lack of confidence. CTO Mira Murati became interim CEO, and Greg Brockman resigned as president. Three senior researchers also resigned.

November 18, 2023: Talks of Altman Returning as CEO

On November 18, 2023, discussions began about Altman's return as CEO amid pressure from investors. Altman considered starting a new company with former OpenAI employees if reinstatement talks failed. Board members agreed "in principle" to resign if Altman returned.

November 19, 2023: Negotiations with Altman Fail, Emmett Shear Appointed Interim CEO

On November 19, 2023, negotiations with Altman to return as CEO failed, and Emmett Shear replaced Murati as interim CEO. The board contacted Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about replacing Altman and proposed a merger, but both offers were declined.

November 20, 2023: Altman and Brockman Join Microsoft

On November 20, 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced Altman and Brockman would lead a new AI research team at Microsoft, while remaining committed to OpenAI. A majority of OpenAI employees threatened to quit and join Microsoft if Altman was not rehired, leading to resumed negotiations.

November 21, 2023: Altman and Brockman Return to OpenAI

On November 21, 2023, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman returned to OpenAI in their previous roles. A reconstructed board was formed with Bret Taylor as chairman and Lawrence Summers as a new member, with Adam D'Angelo remaining. Concerns about Altman's response to the discovery's potential safety implications had been raised with the board before his firing.

November 29, 2023: Microsoft Employee Joins OpenAI Board

On November 29, 2023, OpenAI announced that an anonymous Microsoft employee joined the board as a non-voting member to observe the company's operations.

December 2023: Copilot Added to Windows

In December 2023, MS-Copilot was added to many installations of Windows 11 and Windows 10, with standalone apps released for Android and iOS.

December 2023: The New York Times Sues OpenAI

In late December 2023, The New York Times also sued OpenAI for copyright infringement.

2023: Projected Revenue

According to anonymous sources cited by Reuters in December 2022, OpenAI Global, LLC was projecting $200 million of revenue in 2023.

January 10, 2024: OpenAI Lifts Ban on Military Use

On January 10, 2024, OpenAI was criticized for lifting its ban on using ChatGPT for "military and warfare". Its new policies prohibit "[using] our service to harm yourself or others" and to "develop or use weapons".

January 2024: Partnership with Arizona State University

In January 2024, OpenAI partnered with Arizona State University to provide access to ChatGPT Enterprise, marking its first educational collaboration.

February 2024: Lawsuit Filed by Digital Publishers

In February 2024, The Intercept, Raw Story, and Alternate Media Inc. filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on copyright litigation grounds, charting a new legal strategy for digital-only publishers.

February 29, 2024: Elon Musk Files Lawsuit Against OpenAI

On February 29, 2024, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of shifting focus from public benefit to profit maximization.

April 2024: NOYB Files Complaint Against OpenAI

In April 2024, NOYB filed a complaint with the Austrian Datenschutzbehörde against OpenAI for violating the European General Data Protection Regulation. A text created with ChatGPT gave a false date of birth for a living person without giving the individual the option to see the personal data used in the process.

April 30, 2024: Newspapers Sue OpenAI and Microsoft

On April 30, 2024, eight newspapers, including The Mercury News, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Sun Sentinel, and New York Daily News, filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming illegal harvesting of their copyrighted articles.

May 2024: Leadership Changes and Partnerships

In May 2024, Ilya Sutskever resigned as Chief Scientist, succeeded by Jakub Pachocki, and Jan Leike departed. OpenAI also partnered with Reddit and inked content deals with News Corp and other publishers.

May 2024: OpenAI Destroyed Training Datasets

In May 2024, it was revealed that OpenAI had destroyed its Books1 and Books2 training datasets, used in the training of GPT-3, which the Authors Guild believed to have contained over 100,000 copyrighted books.

May 17, 2024: Non-Disparagement Agreement Controversy

On May 17, 2024, a Vox article reported that OpenAI was asking departing employees to sign a lifelong non-disparagement agreement forbidding them from criticizing OpenAI or acknowledging the existence of the agreement. Daniel Kokotajlo, a former employee, publicly stated that he forfeited his vested equity in OpenAI to leave without signing the agreement.

May 22, 2024: Agreement with News Corp

On May 22, 2024, OpenAI entered into an agreement with News Corp to integrate news content from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times, and The Sunday Times into its AI platform.

May 23, 2024: OpenAI Releases Former Employees from Non-Disparagement Agreement

On May 23, 2024, OpenAI sent a memo releasing former employees from the lifelong non-disparagement agreement, following controversy over the terms.

June 2024: Partnership with Apple and Board Addition

In June 2024, OpenAI joined forces with Apple Inc. to integrate ChatGPT features into Apple Intelligence and iPhone and added former NSA head Paul Nakasone to its board, while acquiring Multi.

July 2024: Microsoft Resigns from OpenAI Board

In July 2024, Microsoft resigned from OpenAI's board, where they previously had a non-voting observer role.

July 2024: OpenAI Developing 'Strawberry' Project

In July 2024, it was reported that OpenAI was developing a project codenamed 'Strawberry' aimed at enhancing AI reasoning capabilities.

August 2024: Elon Musk Sues OpenAI

In August 2024, Elon Musk initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, alleging that the company violated contract provisions by prioritizing profit over its original mission.

August 2024: Musk Revives Legal Action

In August 2024, Elon Musk revived legal action against Altman and others at OpenAI.

August 2024: Cofounder Departure and President's Leave

In August 2024, OpenAI cofounder John Schulman departed to join Anthropic, a rival startup, while OpenAI's president, Greg Brockman, commenced an extended leave of absence.

September 2024: Endorsement of UK AI Regulation and CTO Departure

In September 2024, OpenAI's global affairs chief endorsed the UK's 'smart' AI regulation during a testimony. Meanwhile, CTO Mira Murati announced her departure amid internal concerns.

October 2024: Securing Funding and Acquisition

In October 2024, OpenAI secured $6.6 billion in funding, valuing the company at $157 billion, with investments from Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoftBank. OpenAI also acquired the domain Chat.com, and Greg Brockman returned after a brief absence.

October 2024: OpenAI's Tools Essential for AFRICOM

In October 2024, The Intercept revealed that OpenAI's tools are considered "essential" for AFRICOM's mission and included in an "Exception to Fair Opportunity" contractual agreement between the United States Department of Defense and Microsoft.

November 2024: Canadian News Outlets Sue OpenAI

In November 2024, a coalition of Canadian news outlets, including the Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and CBC, sued OpenAI for using their news articles to train its software without permission.

November 26, 2024: Death of Suchir Balaji

On November 26, 2024, Suchir Balaji, a former researcher at OpenAI, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment. Independent investigations concluded that Balaji shot himself.

December 2024: Partnership with Anduril

In December 2024, OpenAI announced it would partner with defense-tech company Anduril to build drone defense technologies for the United States and its allies.

December 2024: Restructuring Plan Proposed

In December 2024, OpenAI proposed a restructuring plan to convert the capped-profit subsidiary into a Delaware-based public benefit corporation (PBC) and release it from the control of the nonprofit. The nonprofit would sell its control and other assets, getting equity in return, and would use it to fund and pursue separate charitable projects.

December 2024: Launch of Sora Model, OpenAI o1, ChatGPT Pro, and Preliminary Benchmark Results

In December 2024, during the "12 Days of OpenAI" event, OpenAI launched the Sora model for ChatGPT Plus and Pro users and the advanced OpenAI o1 reasoning model. Additionally, ChatGPT Pro, a subscription service, was introduced, and preliminary benchmark results for the upcoming OpenAI o3 models were shared.

2024: Projected Revenue

According to anonymous sources cited by Reuters in December 2022, OpenAI Global, LLC was projecting $1 billion of revenue in 2024.

2024: Windsurf Valued at $1.25 Billion

In 2024, Windsurf, an AI-assisted coding tool, was valued at $1.25 billion after a $150 million funding round led by General Catalyst.

2024: Employee Departures and Planned Restructuring

In 2024, following Sam Altman's temporary removal and return, many employees, including most of the original leadership team and AI safety researchers, left OpenAI. The company also planned a restructuring to operate as a for-profit company.

2024: Foundation of io by Jony Ive

In 2024, io, the AI hardware startup that OpenAI will later acquire in May 2025, was founded by Jony Ive, the former Apple designer.

2024: Collaboration with Broadcom to Design Custom AI Chip

In February 2024, OpenAI began collaborating with Broadcom to design a custom AI chip for training and inference, aiming for mass production in 2026 by TSMC using 3nm node technology, to reduce reliance on Nvidia GPUs.

2024: AI Safety Researchers Leave OpenAI

Throughout 2024, roughly half of then-employed AI safety researchers left OpenAI, citing the company's prominent role in an industry-wide problem.

January 21, 2025: The Stargate Project Joint Venture Announcement

On January 21, 2025, OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX announced the launch of The Stargate Project, a $500 billion joint venture with the US government to build an AI infrastructure system over the next four years, named after OpenAI's existing "Stargate" supercomputer project.

February 10, 2025: Musk Consortium Bids to Buy OpenAI Nonprofit

On February 10, 2025, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk submitted a $97.4 billion unsolicited bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, declaring willingness to match or exceed any better offer.

February 2025: Interest in Collaboration with China

In February 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed interest in collaborating with the People's Republic of China, despite U.S. regulatory restrictions, due to the growing influence of the Chinese AI company DeepSeek.

February 2025: OpenAI Rejects Musk's Acquisition Offer

In February 2025, OpenAI rejected the acquisition offer from Elon Musk and his consortium, stating that it was not for sale. The offer complicated OpenAI's restructuring plan.

February 2025: Release of Autopsy and Police Reports

In February 2025, the OCME autopsy and SFPD police reports regarding Suchir Balaji's death were released. The reports noted that he had purchased the firearm used two years prior to his death and had recently searched for brain anatomy information on his computer. The apartment was dead-bolted from inside, with no signs of forced entry.

March 2025: Policy Proposal for Federal AI Laws

In March 2025, OpenAI proposed a policy for the Trump administration to preempt pending AI-related state laws with federal laws, offering government access in exchange for private sector relief from proposed AI-related bills.

March 2025: $11.9 Billion Agreement with CoreWeave

In March 2025, OpenAI signed an $11.9 billion agreement with CoreWeave, an Nvidia-backed AI cloud provider, receiving $350 million in CoreWeave shares and gaining access to its AI infrastructure, including over a quarter million NVIDIA GPUs.

April 9, 2025: OpenAI Countersues Musk

On April 9, 2025, OpenAI countersued Elon Musk in federal court, alleging 'bad-faith tactics' to hinder OpenAI's progress and appropriate its innovations. The suit seeks damages and legal measures to prevent further interference.

April 2025: OpenAI Corporate Structure

As of April 2025, OpenAI is led by the non-profit OpenAI, Inc., and has multiple for-profit subsidiaries. Microsoft has invested US$13 billion in OpenAI, and is entitled to 49% of OpenAI Global, LLC's profits.

April 2025: $40 Billion Raised at $300 Billion Valuation

In April 2025, OpenAI raised $40 billion at a $300 billion post-money valuation, marking the largest private technology deal on record, led by SoftBank with participation from Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive.

May 11, 2025: Rewriting Partnership Terms with Microsoft

On May 11, 2025, it was reported that OpenAI and Microsoft are rewriting the terms of their multibillion-dollar partnership to allow OpenAI to launch a future IPO while protecting Microsoft's access to AI models.

May 2025: Nonprofit Renounces Plans to Cede Control

In May 2025, Bret Taylor, the chairman of the nonprofit's board, announced that the nonprofit would renounce plans to cede control after facing outside pressure. The capped-profit still plans to transition to a PBC.

May 2025: Acquisition of Windsurf (formerly Codeium)

In May 2025, OpenAI agreed to acquire "Windsurf", an AI-assisted coding tool formerly known as "Codeium", for approximately $3 billion.

May 21, 2025: Acquisition of io for $6.5 Billion

On May 21, 2025, OpenAI announced the $6.5 billion acquisition of io, an AI hardware start-up founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, marking the company's largest acquisition to date. Jony Ive will assume design responsibilities across OpenAI.

June 2025: Renting Google Cloud TPUs for ChatGPT

In June 2025, OpenAI began renting Google Cloud's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to support ChatGPT and related services, marking its first meaningful use of non-Nvidia AI chips, diversifying compute infrastructure.

June 2025: OpenAI Awarded $200 Million DoD Contract

In June 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded OpenAI a $200 million one-year contract to develop AI tools for military and national security applications. OpenAI announced a new program, OpenAI for Government, to give federal, state, and local governments access to its models, including ChatGPT.

July 9, 2025: Completion of Merger with io

On July 9, 2025, OpenAI announced the completion of the merger with io, the AI hardware startup.

July 2025: AI Models Solve International Mathematical Olympiad Problems

In July 2025, reports indicated that artificial intelligence models by both OpenAI and Google DeepMind solved mathematics problems at the level of top-performing students in the International Mathematical Olympiad.

July 2025: $200 Million Contract for AI in the Military and Partnership with UK Government

In July 2025, the United States Department of Defense awarded OpenAI a $200 million contract for AI in the military. Also in July 2025, OpenAI signed a 'strategic partnership' with the UK Government to use ChatGPT and other AI tools across government and public services.

July 18, 2025: Launch of $50 Million Fund to Support Nonprofits

On July 18, 2025, OpenAI announced the launch of a $50 million fund to support nonprofit and community organizations, addressing challenges in education, economic opportunity, community organizing, and healthcare.

August 1, 2025: Removal of "Share with Search Engines" Feature

On August 1, 2025, OpenAI announced the permanent removal of the "share with search engines" feature following the accidental exposure of private ChatGPT conversations. The company began coordinating with search providers to remove the exposed content.

August 2025: ChatGPT Conversations Exposed to Search Engines

In August 2025, OpenAI was criticized after thousands of private ChatGPT conversations were inadvertently exposed to public search engines like Google due to an experimental "share with search engines" feature. Some discussions included personal details, which appeared in search results when users accidentally enabled the feature while sharing links.