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OpenAI
OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence company that develops and sells ChatGPT and the GPT language models behind it.
In plain terms
OpenAI is a San Francisco-based company developing artificial intelligence. Most know it for its chat program called ChatGPT: you ask it a question, and it replies with flowing text.
Imagine a car factory that also makes engines. ChatGPT is the finished car that anyone can get into. The GPT models are the engines that other companies build into their own products. In many applications, customer-service chats or office programs, an OpenAI model does the work, even if its name is nowhere to be seen.
The company deals not only with text. It has tools that create images and videos, recognize speech, and agents that independently perform multi-step tasks, such as writing code or handling matters on websites.
OpenAI is different from a typical tech company in that it started as a non-profit research organization, and today a non-profit foundation still oversees its for-profit company. Its stated goal is that artificial general intelligence (AGI), or a system surpassing humans in most intellectual work, serves the benefit of all humanity. How well this fits with business interests is the subject of much debate.
How it works
- Research and training: the company trains its models on massive amounts of text, images, and other data in data centers with huge computing capacity.
- Productization: building a user interface on top of a ready model. This is ChatGPT, which you access via a browser or mobile app, either for free or via subscription.
- Leasing to developers: the models are also sold via a programming interface (API), allowing other companies to integrate them into their own services by paying based on usage.
- Agents: newer products not only answer but also act. A coding agent, for example, independently writes and fixes code, while other agents search, fill out, and compile on your behalf.
- Funding: development is extremely expensive, so the company relies on major investors and partners, with Microsoft being the most well-known. Revenue comes from subscriptions and API usage fees.
An everyday example
You ask ChatGPT to draft a polite complaint letter to your service provider, and the text is ready in half a minute: you are using the OpenAI product directly. If a web store's chat window responds surprisingly intelligently, a rented OpenAI model is likely working in the background.
Who is affected
A common misconception
Limits and risks
- Models can err confidently, so always verify important facts, numbers, and references from other sources.
- What you type is processed on the company's servers and, depending on settings, may be used to further develop the models. Before sharing confidential business, health, or personal data, check the data processing settings.
- If a company builds its operations on a single provider, it becomes vulnerable to changes in prices, terms, and models.
- Contrary to its name, the company's most powerful models are not open: their operational details and training data cannot be fully known.
Similar, but not the same
- ChatGPT – ChatGPT is a chat application, and OpenAI is the company that creates and operates it.
- GPT – GPT is the name of the family of language models, i.e. the "engine", not the company itself.
- Open-source AI – Despite the word 'Open', OpenAI's main products are closed, paid services. Since 2025, it has released some freely downloadable models (gpt-oss), but its most powerful models cannot be downloaded or freely modified.
Related concepts
AI development company, Artificial intelligence, Generative AI
Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Microsoft Copilot, Large language model, General AI
A brief history
OpenAI was founded in December 2015 as a nonprofit research organization; among the founders were Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever. Musk left the board in 2018 and later sued the company. In 2019, a capped-profit company arm was created, and close cooperation with Microsoft began. Global fame came with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. In November 2023, the board briefly removed Altman, but he returned a few days later. In October 2025, the company restructured: its profit-oriented arm became a public benefit corporation (OpenAI Group PBC), still overseen by the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation.
Where things stand
OpenAI is one of the market's leading players by the end of 2026: hundreds of millions of people use ChatGPT weekly. Meanwhile, competition with Google, Anthropic, and other developers is strong, and the company is increasingly focusing on agents and building its own data centers.
In the news
- Hamburg data protection authority drafts letters with an OpenAI model as complaints rise 62%Nov 8, 2026 · Jog
- Google Cloud adds OpenAI models and Codex agents to Model GardenNov 6, 2026 · Code
- State attorneys general target AI providers: West Virginia sues SnapNov 6, 2026 · Jog
- Man sues OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT helped his wife plan to poison himNov 5, 2026 · Agent Age
- Australian universities roll out ChatGPT Edu to prepare AI-native graduatesNov 5, 2026 · Education & Family
- OpenAI and JPMorgan Chase to deploy Codex and cybersecurity modelsNov 5, 2026 · Code
- JPMorgan Chase partners with OpenAI on AI for cybersecurity and engineeringNov 5, 2026 · Money
- Hedge funds shed AI debt as $500 million data center loan package heads to auctionNov 5, 2026 · Money
Also known as
OpenAI · Open AI · OpenAI Inc. · OpenAI Group PBC · OpenAI Foundation · the developer of ChatGPT · the maker of ChatGPT · ChatGPT maker
Sources
This entry was machine-edited and has undergone machine expert review; the “In the news” section updates automatically from Agent Age stories.