OpenAI
OpenAI
The company that put AI in everyone’s hands. When ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022, it reached 100 million users faster than any product in history. Everything that’s happened since — the investment frenzy, the regulation scramble, this hub existing — traces back to that moment.
Founded in 2015 as a non-profit research lab, OpenAI has since become the most prominent (and controversial) AI company in the world. Valued at $150B+, backed by Microsoft, and constantly at the centre of the conversation about where AI is heading.
The Models
| Model | What it does |
|---|---|
| GPT-4o | Multimodal flagship — text, image, audio, natively |
| o1 / o3 | “Reasoning” models — think step by step before answering |
| DALL-E 3 | Text-to-image generation |
| Whisper | Speech-to-text (one of the few they open-sourced) |
| Sora | Video generation from text prompts |
The GPT series is the most widely-used LLM family in the world. Their “o-series” reasoning models represent a different approach — spending more compute at inference time to think harder about difficult problems.
Products
- ChatGPT — The product that changed everything. Free tier + Plus ($20/mo) + Team + Enterprise
- API Platform — How developers build on OpenAI’s models
- GPT Store — Custom GPTs (like apps, but for ChatGPT)
- ChatGPT Enterprise — Compliance, admin controls, privacy guarantees for businesses
The Story
OpenAI’s history is dramatic even by tech standards:
- 2015 — Founded by Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Elon Musk, and others. Mission: ensure AGI benefits all of humanity. Non-profit.
- 2019 — Shifted to “capped-profit” model. Musk departed the board.
- 2020 — GPT-3 showed that scaling works. Microsoft invested $1B.
- 2022 — ChatGPT launched. Boom.
- 2023 (Nov) — The board fired Sam Altman over unspecified concerns. Five days of chaos. Altman returned. Most of the board left.
- 2024–25 — Restructuring from capped-profit to full for-profit. Ilya Sutskever departed to found SSI. Ongoing.
The board crisis remains AI’s most dramatic corporate moment — and hints at the tension between “ship fast” and “be careful” that defines the field.
Key People
- Sam Altman — CEO. Relentless product launcher. Divisive figure.
- Ilya Sutskever — Co-founder, former Chief Scientist. The technical vision behind GPT. Departed 2024.
- Greg Brockman — Co-founder, President. On extended leave.
How They Fit In
OpenAI competes head-to-head with Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta AI. Their competitive advantage is brand recognition (ChatGPT is AI to most people) and their Microsoft partnership (distribution through Office, Azure, Bing).
Their approach is more “ship and iterate” than “safety first” — which is partly why Anthropic exists (founded by people who left OpenAI over exactly this tension).
Related
- Anthropic — Founded by ex-OpenAI researchers, safety-first alternative
- Ilya Sutskever — The researcher behind OpenAI’s technical direction
- How LLMs Work — GPT models are the canonical example
- AI Timeline — ChatGPT as an inflection point