History of OpenAI in Timeline

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: July 12, 2026

OpenAI is a leading artificial intelligence research organization dedicated to developing safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI). Founded in 2015, it initially operated as a non-profit before transitioning to a capped-profit structure to scale its research efforts. The organization has gained global prominence through its breakthrough generative AI models, most notably the GPT series and the DALL-E image generator. By releasing tools like ChatGPT, OpenAI has fundamentally transformed the landscape of consumer technology, enabling widespread interaction with large language models. The company focuses on the alignment of AI with human values, aiming to ensure that advanced autonomous systems provide broad economic and societal benefits while mitigating potential risks. Today, OpenAI stands as a central figure in the rapid evolution of the AI industry, influencing research standards, public policy, and the practical application of machine learning across various sectors.

December 2015: Hiring of OpenAI's first employees

In December 2015, Greg Brockman successfully recruited nine prominent AI researchers to become the founding staff of OpenAI after consulting with Yoshua Bengio to identify top talent in the field.

December 2015: Founding of OpenAI

In December 2015, the nonprofit organization OpenAI, Inc. was established by a group of prominent founders including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, backed by $1 billion in pledged capital from various high-profile investors and corporations.

2015: Founding Vision and Ethical Stance of OpenAI

In 2015, Elon Musk and other co-founders established OpenAI, driven by concerns regarding AI safety and the existential risks posed by artificial general intelligence. The organization articulated a mission in 2015 to ensure that human-level AI benefits society at large, advocating for the technology to be an extension of individual human wills distributed as broadly and evenly as possible. Sam Altman, serving as co-chair, framed the initiative as a long-term project aimed at eventually developing technology that surpasses human intelligence, prioritizing global well-being over institutional self-interest.

2015: Founding of OpenAI

In 2015, OpenAI was officially established as a nonprofit organization based in Delaware.

April 2016: Launch of OpenAI Gym

In April 2016, OpenAI introduced OpenAI Gym, a public beta platform designed to facilitate research in the field of reinforcement learning.

August 2016: Nvidia DGX-1 Donation

During August 2016, Nvidia provided OpenAI with its first DGX-1 supercomputer, a powerful hardware tool that significantly enhanced AI model training by shortening processing times from six days down to just two hours.

December 2016: Release of Universe

In December 2016, OpenAI launched Universe, a software platform developed to evaluate and train artificial intelligence for general intelligence capabilities across various games, websites, and applications.

2016: Initial operational spending

Throughout 2016, OpenAI invested a total of $7 million into its initial team of 52 employees, prioritizing mission-driven recruitment over competitive market-rate salaries and stock options.

2017: OpenAI Cloud Computing Expenditure

In 2017, OpenAI dedicated $7.9 million to cloud computing costs, representing 25% of the organization's total functional expenses for that year.

2018: Dota 2 Bot Training Infrastructure

During the summer of 2018, OpenAI utilized a massive computing cluster consisting of 128,000 CPUs and 256 GPUs rented from Google over several weeks to train their Dota 2 bots.

2019: Creation of For-Profit Subsidiary

During 2019, OpenAI expanded its corporate structure by launching a for-profit subsidiary to work alongside its existing nonprofit entity.

2019: Initial Microsoft Investment

In 2019, Microsoft initiated a partnership with OpenAI by providing an initial investment of $1 billion.

2019: Microsoft Strategic Investment

In 2019, Microsoft injected $1 billion into OpenAI, an investment widely credited with initiating the contemporary boom in artificial intelligence technology.

2019: OpenAI 2019 Restructuring

In 2019, OpenAI underwent a significant corporate restructuring, establishing OpenAI, Inc. as the sole controlling shareholder of the newly formed OpenAI LP. This change aimed to balance the nonprofit charter with the need for capital, imposing restrictions on board members and shareholders to manage potential conflicts of interest.

2019: OpenAI transitions to capped for-profit model

In 2019, OpenAI underwent a significant structural change by transitioning from a pure nonprofit organization to a "capped" for-profit model. Under this new framework established in 2019, potential profits were restricted to 100 times the initial investment, and the organization formed three distinct subsidiaries including OpenAI LP, OpenAI GP LLC, and OpenAI Global, LLC to manage its operations and investor relationships with partners like Microsoft.

2021: Capital Collection Discrepancy

As of 2021, tax filings revealed that the actual funding received by OpenAI totaled $133.2 million, which was significantly lower than the $1 billion in capital that had been originally pledged at the organization's inception.

2021: OpenAI Valuation Benchmark

In 2021, OpenAI reached a specific company valuation that would later be doubled by subsequent investment rounds.

November 2022: The Release of ChatGPT

In November 2022, OpenAI officially released ChatGPT, a generative AI model that became a major turning point in the technology industry by sparking a widespread boom in interest surrounding generative artificial intelligence.

2022: Continued Microsoft Funding

Through the year 2022, Microsoft continued its financial support of OpenAI, providing an additional $2 billion in investment.

January 23, 2023: Multi-year Investment Announcement

On January 23, 2023, Microsoft announced a major commitment to invest an additional $10 billion into OpenAI, with plans to allocate a significant portion toward compute resources on the Microsoft Azure platform.

November 2023: Sam Altman's Removal and Reinstatement as CEO

In November 2023, the OpenAI board of directors abruptly removed Sam Altman from his position as CEO due to a reported lack of confidence, only to reverse the decision and reinstate him five days later following a significant restructuring of the board.

October 2024: OpenAI Completes $6.6 Billion Funding Round

In October 2024, OpenAI successfully finalized a significant capital raise of $6.6 billion, which brought the company's total valuation to $157 billion. The funding round included major financial contributions from strategic partners and investors such as Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoftBank.

December 2024: OpenAI Proposed Corporate Restructuring

In December 2024, OpenAI announced a significant strategic proposal to transition its business structure into a Delaware-based public benefit corporation (PBC). This shift, planned for December 2024, involves removing the organization's existing profit cap and decoupling the company from the oversight of its original nonprofit board. Leadership stated this change is essential to attract further investment while maintaining their mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

2024: AI Safety Researcher Departures and Copyright Lawsuits

Throughout 2024, OpenAI faced significant internal turnover as roughly half of its safety-focused researchers resigned, expressing concerns over the company's shift away from safety priorities. Additionally, throughout 2024, the company continued to navigate multiple legal challenges concerning alleged copyright infringement regarding the training data used for its software products.

2024: Annual Financial Performance and User Metrics

Throughout 2024, OpenAI recorded $3.7 billion in revenue, while ChatGPT ended the year with 15.5 million paid subscribers.

January 21, 2025: Announcement of The Stargate Project

On January 21, 2025, Donald Trump unveiled The Stargate Project, a massive $500 billion initiative aimed at developing an AI infrastructure system. This venture involves a partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, MGX, and the US government, building upon OpenAI's internal supercomputing efforts to be funded over a four-year period.

April 2025: ChatGPT Subscription Growth

By April 2025, the number of paid subscribers for the ChatGPT service increased to 20 million, demonstrating continued user adoption.

April 2025: OpenAI Raises $40 Billion Financing Round

In April 2025, OpenAI secured $40 billion in funding, resulting in a post-money valuation of $300 billion. This transaction was spearheaded by SoftBank and represents the largest private technology financing deal in history, with additional contributions from investors including Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive.

July 2025: OpenAI Annualized Revenue Milestone

In July 2025, OpenAI reached a significant financial milestone by reporting an annualized revenue of $12 billion, reflecting substantial growth for the company.

October 2025: Multi-billion Dollar Share Sale

In October 2025, OpenAI successfully completed a share sale amounting to $6.6 billion, which resulted in the company reaching a valuation of $500 billion.

October 28, 2025: Adoption of PBC Corporate Structure

On October 28, 2025, OpenAI transitioned to a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) model following regulatory approval from California and Delaware. This restructuring reorganized the for-profit division into OpenAI Group PBC and the nonprofit division into the OpenAI Foundation, with ownership split between the Foundation, Microsoft, and private investors.

2025: OpenAI Restructuring and New Microsoft Partnership Agreement

In 2025, following a major corporate restructuring, Microsoft retained a 27% stake in OpenAI Group PBC, valued at $135 billion. As part of this 2025 agreement, OpenAI committed to purchasing $250 billion in Azure services, while Microsoft relinquished its right of first refusal for future cloud services. The 2025 deal also established that OpenAI will share 20% of its revenue with Microsoft until the achievement of AGI, as verified by an independent panel, and it loosened restrictions to allow both companies to pursue independent development and third-party collaborations.

April 2026: Musk Files Revised Lawsuit Against OpenAI

In April 2026, Elon Musk submitted a revised lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, specifically requesting that the court force a reversal of the organization's corporate restructuring.

April 2026: Restructuring of OpenAI and Microsoft Partnership

In April 2026, OpenAI and Microsoft reached a new agreement that modified their existing partnership. This update removed exclusivity for Microsoft as a cloud provider, changed revenue-sharing terms regarding OpenAI's technology, and eliminated a specific clause concerning the declaration of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which had previously created legal and operational uncertainty.

May 2026: Musk Loses Lawsuit and OpenAI IPO Preparations

During May 2026, a jury ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, determining the claim was barred by the statute of limitations. Simultaneously, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI began preparations for a confidential IPO filing with plans to go public by the fall of 2026.