History of OpenAI in Timeline

OpenAI is an American AI organization founded in 2015, headquartered in San Francisco. Its goal is to develop safe and beneficial AGI, defined as highly autonomous systems surpassing human capabilities in economically valuable work. OpenAI is known for its GPT language models, DALL-E text-to-image models, and Sora text-to-video model. The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 significantly boosted public interest in generative AI.

December 2015: Hiring of First Employees

In December 2015, Greg Brockman hired nine researchers as the first employees of OpenAI after meeting with Yoshua Bengio.

December 2015: OpenAI Founding and Initial Pledges

In December 2015, OpenAI was founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others, with initial capital pledges totaling $1 billion from various individuals and organizations. The actual collected amount was only $130 million until 2019.

December 2015: OpenAI, Inc. Founded

In December 2015, OpenAI, Inc. was founded as an American artificial intelligence organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, with the aim to develop safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence.

2015: Musk and Altman Express Concerns about AI Safety

In 2015, Elon Musk and Sam Altman expressed concerns about AI safety and the existential risk posed by artificial general intelligence, which partly motivated them to found OpenAI.

April 2016: Public Beta Release of OpenAI Gym

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

August 2016: Nvidia's DGX-1 Supercomputer Gift

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

December 2016: Release of Universe Platform

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

2016: Altman Discusses Technological Singularity

During a 2016 conversation about technological singularity, Altman indicated that OpenAI does not plan to release all of its source code and mentioned a plan to allow wide swaths of the world to elect representatives to a new governance board. Greg Brockman stated that their goal is to do the best thing, but that it is a little vague.

2016: Compensation of AI Researchers

In 2016, OpenAI paid corporate-level salaries but did not match the high salaries offered by companies like Facebook or Google to AI researchers.

2017: Cloud Computing Expenses

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

2018: Musk Departs OpenAI

Before his departure in 2018, Musk discussed the best way to ensure a good future, suggesting either regulatory oversight or active participation with the right structure for developing safe and beneficial AI. He emphasized empowering as many people as possible with AI to prevent any single entity from having an AI superpower.

2018: Elon Musk Resigns from OpenAI Board

In 2018, Elon Musk resigned from his Board of Directors seat at OpenAI due to a potential conflict of interest with his role as CEO of Tesla and Tesla's AI development for self-driving cars. Sam Altman claimed that Elon Musk believed that OpenAI had fallen behind other players like Google and Musk proposed instead to take over OpenAI himself, which the board rejected. Musk subsequently left OpenAI.

2018: Dota 2 Bots Training

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, OpenAI announced GPT-2, which gained attention for its ability to generate human-like text.

2019: OpenAI Withholds GPT-2

Around 2019, OpenAI's decision to withhold GPT-2, citing caution due to potential misuse, was criticized by advocates of openness. Delip Rao and other critics argued that open publication was needed for research replication and countermeasure development.

2019: Creation of OpenAI Global, LLC

In 2019, OpenAI created OpenAI Global, LLC, a capped-profit subsidiary controlled by the nonprofit organization, as part of its corporate structure.

2019: Transition to Capped For-Profit

In 2019, OpenAI transitioned from a non-profit to a "capped" for-profit, with profits capped at 100 times any investment to attract investment and offer employee stakes.

2019: Initial pledged amount collected

Until 2019, OpenAI only collected $130 million of the initially pledged $1 billion.

December 2020: Employees leave OpenAI to establish Anthropic

Between December 2020 and January 2021, eleven employees left OpenAI to establish Anthropic.

2020: GPT-3 Announcement

In 2020, OpenAI announced GPT-3, a language model trained on large internet datasets, aimed at answering questions, translating languages, and generating improvised text. It also announced an associated API, named simply "the API", would form the heart of its first commercial product.

January 2021: Employees leave OpenAI to establish Anthropic

Between December 2020 and January 2021, eleven employees left OpenAI to establish Anthropic.

November 2021: OpenAI Begins Sending Data to Sama

In November 2021, OpenAI began sending data snippets to Sama, which were then used to train AI models to detect toxicity. This data often contained descriptions of various types of violence, including sexual violence, which had a negative impact on the Sama employees who were tasked with annotating it.

2021: Development of Whisper and Use of YouTube Data

In 2021, OpenAI developed Whisper, a speech recognition tool, and used it to transcribe over one million hours of YouTube videos into text for training GPT-4. This raised concerns within OpenAI about potential violations of YouTube's terms of service, but the project proceeded and the dataset proved instrumental in training GPT-4.

2021: Introduction of DALL-E

In 2021, OpenAI introduced DALL-E, a specialized deep learning model that generates complex digital images from textual descriptions, utilizing a variant of the GPT-3 architecture.

2021: OpenAI's Valuation in 2021

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, its new AI chatbot based on GPT-3.5, receiving over a million sign-ups within the first five days.

2022: OpenAI Publishes Approach to Alignment Problem

In 2022, OpenAI published its approach to the alignment problem, stating that aligning AGI to human values would be harder than aligning current AI systems. They emphasized the potential risks of unaligned AGI and the need for global collaboration to solve the AGI alignment problem, exploring human feedback and safe AI automation for alignment research.

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 workers annotated data used to train an AI model for toxicity detection, including content from ChatGPT. The work involved reviewing descriptions of violence, and the workers described themselves as mentally scarred. OpenAI paid Sama $12.50 per hour, while annotators received between $1.32 and $2.00 per hour post-tax.

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, partially to use Microsoft's cloud-computing service Azure.

February 7, 2023: Microsoft Integrates AI into Products

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 OpenAI Board

On March 3, 2023, Reid Hoffman resigned from his board seat at OpenAI to avoid conflicts of interest with his AI investments, but remained on the board of Microsoft.

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 Technical Details

In March 2023, OpenAI received criticism for not disclosing enough technical details about products like GPT-4, a shift from their initial commitment to openness. OpenAI cited competitiveness and safety concerns to justify this change, while Ilya Sutskever argued that open-sourcing capable models was risky.

April 2023: EU Task Force on ChatGPT

In April 2023, the EU's European Data Protection Board (EDPB) formed a dedicated task force on ChatGPT. This task force was created "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 governing superintelligence, including creating an international watchdog organization and increasing technical safety research.

June 2023: Lawsuit Claiming Illegal Scraping

In June 2023, a lawsuit filed in San Francisco claimed that OpenAI scraped 300 billion words online without consent and without registering as a data broker. The plaintiffs also alleged that OpenAI and Microsoft unlawfully collected and used personal data to train AI models.

July 2023: Superalignment Project Launch

In July 2023, OpenAI launched the superalignment project, aiming to align future superintelligences by automating alignment research using AI within 4 years.

July 2023: Authors Sue OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

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

August 2023: Acquisition of Global Illumination

In August 2023, OpenAI acquired Global Illumination, a New York-based start-up developing digital infrastructure and creative tools using AI.

September 2023: Authors Guild Files Class Action Lawsuit

In September 2023, seventeen 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. They alleged the company's technology illegally used their copyrighted work.

September 21, 2023: Microsoft Rebrands Copilot

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.

October 2023: OpenAI to let G42 deploy Open AI technology

In October 2023, Sam Altman and Peng Xiao, CEO of the Emirati AI firm G42, announced Open AI would let G42 deploy Open AI technology.

November 6, 2023: GPTs Launch

On November 6, 2023, OpenAI launched GPTs, allowing individuals to create customized versions of ChatGPT for specific purposes.

November 14, 2023: ChatGPT Plus Sign-Ups Suspended

On November 14, 2023, OpenAI announced a temporary suspension of new sign-ups for ChatGPT Plus due to high demand. Access for newer subscribers re-opened a month later on December 13.

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

In November 2023, OpenAI's board removed Sam Altman as CEO, citing a lack of confidence in him, but reinstated him five days later following a board reconstruction.

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. Mira Murati took over as interim CEO, and Greg Brockman resigned as president and chairman of the board. Several senior researchers also resigned.

November 18, 2023: Talks of Altman's Return as CEO

On November 18, 2023, there were talks about Altman potentially returning as CEO amid investor pressure. Altman considered starting a new company if reinstatement talks failed. The board members agreed "in principle" to resign if Altman returned.

November 19, 2023: Negotiations Fail, Emmett Shear Replaces Murati

On November 19, 2023, negotiations for Altman to return as CEO failed, leading to Emmett Shear replacing Mira Murati as interim CEO. The board had also approached Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei with an offer to replace Altman and a proposal to merge the companies, but both offers were declined.

November 20, 2023: Altman and Brockman Join Microsoft

On November 20, 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Altman and Brockman would join Microsoft to lead a new AI research team, but they were still committed to OpenAI. Altman gave the OpenAI board another opportunity to negotiate after pressure from 738 of 770 OpenAI employees threatening to quit. Negotiations with Altman and the board had resumed.

November 21, 2023: Altman and Brockman Return to OpenAI

On November 21, 2023, Altman and Brockman returned to OpenAI in their prior roles with a reconstructed board. The new board members included Bret Taylor and Lawrence Summers, with Adam D'Angelo remaining.

November 22, 2023: Concerns Raised over Project Q*

On November 22, 2023, reports surfaced that Sam Altman's dismissal from OpenAI may have been linked to his handling of Project Q*, which aimed to develop AI in logical and mathematical reasoning. Concerns regarding the safety implications of this development were reportedly raised with the board.

November 29, 2023: Microsoft Joins OpenAI Board as Observer

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

December 2023: MS-Copilot added to Windows

In December 2023, the MS-Copilot was added to many installations of Windows 11 and Windows 10, as well as a standalone Microsoft Copilot app released for Android and iOS.

December 2023: The New York Times Sues OpenAI

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

2023: Projected Revenue for 2023

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". The 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 complete access to ChatGPT Enterprise in its first educational collaboration.

February 2024: Lawsuit by Digital Publishers

In February 2024, The Intercept, Raw Story, and Alternate Media Inc. filed a lawsuit against OpenAI based on copyright litigation, 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 Complaint Against OpenAI

In April 2024, NOYB filed a complaint with the Austrian Datenschutzbehörde against OpenAI for violating the European General Data Protection Regulation. ChatGPT gave a false date of birth for a living person and a request to correct the mistake was denied.

April 30, 2024: Newspapers Sue OpenAI and Microsoft

On April 30, 2024, eight newspapers, including The Mercury News, The Denver Post, and Chicago Tribune, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit claimed illegal harvesting of their copyrighted articles.

May 2024: Leadership Changes and Partnerships

In May 2024, Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever resigned, being succeeded by Jakub Pachocki, and co-leader Jan Leike departed. Additionally, OpenAI partnered with Reddit and News Corp and made licensing arrangements with Axios and Vox Media.

May 2024: OpenAI Destroys Training Datasets

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

May 17, 2024: Report on Non-Disparagement Agreement

On May 17, 2024, a Vox article reported that OpenAI required departing employees to sign a lifelong non-disparagement agreement. Daniel Kokotajlo, a former employee, forfeited his vested equity to avoid signing it. Sam Altman initially claimed unawareness of the equity cancellation provision, but leaked documents challenged this assertion.

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 Agreement

On May 23, 2024, OpenAI sent a memo releasing former employees from the lifelong non-disparagement agreement after it received considerable negative publicity.

June 2024: Partnership with Apple Inc. and Acquisition of Multi

In June 2024, OpenAI collaborated with Apple Inc. to integrate ChatGPT features into Apple Intelligence and iPhone, added former NSA head Paul Nakasone to its board, and acquired Multi, a startup focused on remote collaboration.

July 2024: Microsoft Resigns from OpenAI Board

In July 2024, Microsoft resigned from OpenAI's board of directors.

July 2024: Development of Project 'Strawberry'

In July 2024, Reuters reported that OpenAI was developing a project, codenamed 'Strawberry', to enhance AI reasoning.

August 2024: Musk Lawsuit Against OpenAI

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

August 2024: Musk Revives Legal Action Against OpenAI

In August 2024, Elon Musk revived legal action against Altman and others at OpenAI, after initially filing a lawsuit in February of the same year.

August 2024: Cofounder John Schulman Leaves, Greg Brockman Takes Leave

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

September 2024: OpenAI Endorses UK AI Regulation, Mira Murati Departs

In September 2024, OpenAI's global affairs chief supported the UK's “smart” AI regulation during a House of Lords committee testimony. Simultaneously, CTO Mira Murati announced her departure amid internal unease.

October 2024: OpenAI Secures $6.6 Billion in Funding and Acquires Chat.com

In October 2024, OpenAI obtained $6.6 billion in funding, which valued the company at $157 billion, with investments from Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoftBank. Moreover, OpenAI acquired the domain Chat.com and saw the return of Greg Brockman after his brief leave.

October 2024: OpenAI's Tools Considered Essential for AFRICOM

In October 2024, The Intercept revealed that OpenAI's tools are considered "essential" for AFRICOM's mission and are 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 died by suicide.

December 2024: Partnership with Anduril

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

December 2024: OpenAI Launches Sora Model, O1 Reasoning Model, and ChatGPT Pro

In December 2024, OpenAI introduced several products during its "12 Days of OpenAI" event. They launched the Sora model for ChatGPT Plus and Pro users, along with the advanced OpenAI o1 reasoning model. The company also introduced ChatGPT Pro, a $200/month subscription that offers unlimited o1 access and enhanced voice features. Preliminary benchmark results for the upcoming OpenAI o3 models were shared during the event.

December 2024: Proposed Restructuring Plan

In December 2024, OpenAI proposed a restructuring plan to convert its capped-profit subsidiary into a Delaware-based public benefit corporation (PBC) and release it from the nonprofit's control. The nonprofit would sell its control for equity to fund charitable projects. OpenAI's leadership stated the change was needed to secure investments and better fulfill its mission.

2024: Projected Revenue for 2024

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

2024: OpenAI Rebrands and Collaborates with Broadcom

In 2024, OpenAI underwent a rebranding, introducing a new typeface, word mark, symbol, and palette. OpenAI also began collaborating with Broadcom to design a custom AI chip for both training and inference, with mass production targeted for 2026.

2024: Windsurf Valued at $1.25 Billion

In 2024, Windsurf was valued at $1.25 billion following a $150 million funding round led by venture capital firm General Catalyst.

2024: Employee Departures and Restructuring at OpenAI

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

2024: Jony Ive Founds io

In 2024, io, an AI hardware start-up, was founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive. OpenAI acquired io on May 21, 2025 for $6.5 billion.

2024: AI safety researchers leave OpenAI

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

January 20, 2025: DeepSeek Releases DeepSeek-R1 Model

On January 20, 2025, DeepSeek launched the "DeepSeek-R1" model, which rivaled OpenAI's o1 performance and was open-weight. DeepSeek claimed that the model's training cost was $5.6 million, leading to investor panic and causing Nvidia to record its biggest single-day market cap loss on January 27.

January 21, 2025: The Stargate Project Announced

On January 21, 2025, OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX announced The Stargate Project, a joint venture to develop an AI infrastructure system in collaboration with the US government. The project, named after OpenAI's existing "Stargate" supercomputer project, is estimated to cost $500 billion and will be funded over the next four years.

February 10, 2025: Unsolicited Bid to Buy OpenAI

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

February 2025: OpenAI Expresses Interest in Collaborating with China

In February 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated the company's interest in collaborating with the People's Republic of China, despite U.S. regulatory restrictions. This comes in response to the growing influence of the Chinese AI company DeepSeek and its open models like DeepSeek V3 and DeepSeek R1.

February 2025: OpenAI Rejects Musk's Buyout Offer

In February 2025, OpenAI rejected Elon Musk's $97.4 billion buyout offer, stating that it was not for sale. However, the offer complicated OpenAI's restructuring plan by suggesting a valuation for the nonprofit.

February 2025: Release of Autopsy and Police Reports

In February 2025, the OCME autopsy and SFPD police reports regarding the death of Suchir Balaji were released. They indicated that he purchased the firearm used two years prior, researched brain anatomy, and that his apartment was dead-bolted from the inside with no signs of forced entry.

March 2025: OpenAI Signs $11.9 Billion Agreement with CoreWeave

In March 2025, OpenAI entered into an $11.9 billion agreement with CoreWeave, an AI-focused cloud service provider backed by Nvidia. Under the deal, OpenAI will receive $350 million worth of CoreWeave shares and access to CoreWeave's AI infrastructure, which includes over a quarter million NVIDIA GPUs.

March 2025: OpenAI Proposes Federal AI Laws

In March 2025, OpenAI proposed that the Trump administration preempt pending AI-related state laws with federal laws. This framework aims to extend government access and learnings in exchange for providing the private sector relief from numerous proposed AI-related bills in US states.

April 9, 2025: OpenAI Countersues Musk

On April 9, 2025, OpenAI countersued Musk in federal court, alleging "bad-faith tactics" to slow the company's progress and seize innovations for his personal benefit. They argued that Musk had previously supported the creation of a for-profit structure and wanted to control OpenAI himself. The countersuit seeks damages and legal measures to prevent further alleged interference.

April 2025: Organizational structure in April 2025

As of April 2025, OpenAI is led by the non-profit OpenAI, Inc., registered in Delaware, and has multiple for-profit subsidiaries including OpenAI Holdings, LLC and OpenAI Global, LLC. Microsoft has invested US$13 billion in OpenAI and is entitled to 49% of OpenAI Global, LLC's profits, capped at an estimated 10x their investment. Microsoft also provides computing resources to OpenAI through its cloud platform, Microsoft Azure.

April 2025: OpenAI Raises $40 Billion 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. The financing round was led by SoftBank, with other participants including Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive.

May 11, 2025: OpenAI and Microsoft Rewrite Partnership Terms

On May 11, 2025, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI and Microsoft are renegotiating the terms of their multibillion-dollar partnership. The negotiation aims to allow OpenAI to launch a future IPO, while ensuring Microsoft's continued access to cutting-edge AI models.

May 2025: Nonprofit Renounces Plans to Cede Control

In May 2025, Bret Taylor, the nonprofit's board chairman, announced that the nonprofit would renounce plans to cede control of OpenAI following outside pressure. The capped-profit subsidiary still planned to transition to a PBC, a move criticized for diminishing the nonprofit's control.

May 2025: OpenAI Agrees to Acquire Windsurf

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

May 21, 2025: OpenAI Acquires 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 in 2024. The companies will merge to enhance collaboration in research, engineering, and product development in San Francisco. Jony Ive will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI to develop new AI-powered hardware products. The deal is reported as OpenAI's largest acquisition to date.

June 2025: OpenAI Begins Renting Google Cloud TPUs

In June 2025, OpenAI started renting Google Cloud's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to support ChatGPT and related services. This marks its first significant use of non-Nvidia AI chips, representing a strategic move to diversify compute infrastructure and reduce reliance on Microsoft Azure and Nvidia GPUs.

June 2025: DoD Awards Contract to OpenAI

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 also announced a new program, OpenAI for Government, to give governments access to its models, including ChatGPT.

July 2025: OpenAI Receives $200 Million DoD Contract

In July 2025, the United States Department of Defense announced that OpenAI, along with Anthropic, Google, and xAI, received a $200 million contract for AI in the military.

2025: Kevin Weil joins U.S. Army

In 2025, OpenAI's Chief Product Officer, Kevin Weil, was commissioned lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army to join Detachment 201 as senior advisor.

2026: Target Mass Production of Custom AI Chip

In 2026, OpenAI and Broadcom are targeting the mass production of a custom AI chip, which they began collaborating on in 2024, designed for both training and inference. This chip will be manufactured by TSMC in a 3 nm node, aiming to reduce OpenAI's reliance on Nvidia GPUs.