OpenAI, Inc.
OpenAI's mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity by advancing digital intelligence in a way that most benefits humanity, unconstrained by the need to generate financial returns.
Founding Story
OpenAI was founded on December 8, 2015, with a bold vision to advance artificial intelligence in a way that benefits all of humanity. Sam Altman and Greg Brockman initially planned to raise $100 million, but Elon Musk advised a $1 billion commitment to maintain credibility against tech giants like Google and Facebook. The organization began as a non-profit research lab committed to open collaboration, with its first office run from Greg Brockman's living room before moving to the Pioneer Building in San Francisco. The founding team included world-class researchers and engineers who pledged over $1 billion to ensure AI progressed responsibly and openly. By early 2017, the leadership realized that building AGI would require billions of dollars per year in compute resources, far exceeding the capacity of a non-profit. This led to the creation of a capped-profit structure in 2019 to attract venture investment and top-tier research talent while maintaining its ethical mission. The founders wanted to prioritize a good outcome for all over self-interest, especially as AI approached human-level performance on intellectual tasks.
Discussions
OpenAI's Impact on the AI Developer Ecosystem
How has OpenAI shaped the current landscape of AI development tools and platforms? What are the biggest pros and cons of their influence?
Leadership
Founders
Sam Altman
Former president of Y Combinator; studied computer science at Stanford University; currently serves as CEO and co-chair of OpenAI
Greg Brockman
Former CTO of Stripe; attended Harvard and MIT for mathematics and computer science; currently serves as President of OpenAI
Ilya Sutskever
Former Google research scientist; world expert in machine learning; served as Research Director and co-founder; later Chief Scientist at OpenAI
Elon Musk
CEO of Tesla and SpaceX; co-chair of OpenAI; left the organization in February 2018 due to disagreements about control and direction
Wojciech Zaremba
AI researcher and founding member of OpenAI
John Schulman
Researcher in reinforcement learning; founding member of OpenAI
Trevor Blackwell
Computer scientist and roboticist; founding member of OpenAI
Vicki Cheung
Software engineer; founding member of OpenAI
Andrej Karpathy
Former Director of AI at Tesla; founding member of OpenAI (worked from 2015-2017, later rejoined)
Durk Kingma
Researcher in machine learning; founding member of OpenAI
Pamela Vagata
AI researcher; founding member of OpenAI
Executive Team
Sam Altman
CEO and Co-Founder
Former president of Y Combinator; studied computer science at Stanford
Greg Brockman
President and Co-Founder
Former CTO of Stripe; attended Harvard and MIT
Business Model
Revenue Model
OpenAI generates revenue through multiple channels: (1) API usage with pay-per-token pricing for developers and businesses, (2) ChatGPT subscription tiers (Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise) with monthly/annual plans, (3) Enterprise licenses with custom pricing, (4) Platform integrations and partnerships, (5) Beginning 2026, advertising in free ChatGPT tier
Pricing Tiers
Basic access to ChatGPT with limited features
Mid-tier subscription launched January 2026
Access to GPT-5.2 models including Thinking mode, Sora video generation, up to 50 videos/month (480p), ChatGPT Search, Canvas, Voice, Vision, and more
Unlimited access to GPT-5.2 Pro, unlimited 1080p video generation, deep research, agent mode, and enhanced capabilities
Team collaboration, admin console, integrations with Slack, Google Drive, SharePoint, data security features, and business-grade support
Unlimited high-speed access, data residency options, SOC 2 compliance, custom deployment, dedicated support, and advanced security
Best model for coding and agentic tasks; cached input $0.175/1M tokens
Premium tier for maximum performance
Cost-effective option for simpler tasks
Previous generation model; fine-tuning available at $25.00/1M training tokens
Video generation pricing varies by model and resolution
Pricing depends on resolution and model (GPT-image-1.5, 1, 1-mini)
Discounted pricing for batch API requests
Target Markets
- Enterprise businesses and Fortune 500 companies
- Software developers and engineers
- Financial services and banking
- Healthcare and life sciences
- Retail and e-commerce
- Education (K-12, universities, educators)
- Customer service automation and chatbots
- Content generation and creative writing
- Code generation and software development
- Language translation
- Image and video creation
- Data analysis and insights
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Disney
- U.S. Department of Defense
History & Milestones
Announced OpenAI for Healthcare initiative
Announced ChatGPT Go ($8/month plan) and testing of ads in ChatGPT
Raised $40 billion in Series F funding led by SoftBank at $300 billion post-money valuation
Leadership updates announced: Mark Chen became Chief Research Officer, Brad Lightcap Chief Operating Officer, Julia Villagra Chief People Officer
Reached $10 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR)
6 AI Tools by OpenAI, Inc.
A curated collection of reusable AI agent skills and templates for building intelligent automation workflows.
Prism
9dAI-powered LaTeX editor for creating and managing documents with intelligent assistance.
AI-powered web browser by OpenAI with ChatGPT built in, featuring agent mode, sidebar help, inline writing, and optional browser memories.
Codex
5moCloud-based software engineering agent that answers codebase questions, executes code, and drafts pull requests.
ChatGPT
7moAI chatbot built on the GPT large language models that enables natural conversations and assists with a wide range of tasks.
OpenAI API
7moProgramming interface for accessing GPT and other AI models for various applications.
