OpenAI was founded in December 2015 by a group of prominent tech leaders and researchers with the ambitious goal of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. The organization's mission is to develop safe and beneficial AGI systems that are generally smarter than humans, while ensuring that the advantages and governance of such technology are widely distributed12.

The founding team included notable figures such as Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever, who brought together their expertise and resources to address the potential risks and opportunities associated with advanced AI. OpenAI's approach focuses on conducting cutting-edge research, developing powerful AI models, and actively engaging in discussions about the ethical implications of AGI. The organization aims to lead in areas directly aligned with its mission and expertise, recognizing that AI will have broad societal impacts even before AGI is achieved34. By prioritizing safety, transparency, and collaboration, OpenAI strives to maximize the positive impact of AGI while mitigating potential risks, ensuring that the benefits of this transformative technology accrue to all of humanity.

OpenAI underwent a significant transformation in 2019, shifting from a nonprofit to a "capped-profit" organization to attract more capital for its ambitious research and development goals1. This unique hybrid model aims to balance the need for substantial funding with the company's mission-driven approach. Under this structure, investors and employees can earn returns, but these are capped at a specific multiple of their investment, with excess profits flowing to the nonprofit parent organization2.

The company's revenue streams are diverse, including API access to its powerful AI models like GPT-3 and DALL-E, licensing agreements, subscription services such as ChatGPT Plus, and strategic partnerships32. A cornerstone of OpenAI's business model is its partnership with Microsoft, which began with a $1 billion investment in 2019. This collaboration involves the integration of OpenAI's technologies into Microsoft's products and services, providing OpenAI with both financial support and access to advanced computational resources2. Despite its transition to a for-profit entity, OpenAI maintains that its nonprofit board retains control over major decisions, aiming to ensure that the company's actions align with its mission to benefit humanity as a whole4.

OpenAI has developed several groundbreaking AI models and technologies that have significantly impacted various industries. Their flagship product, GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), has evolved through multiple iterations, with GPT-3 and GPT-4 being the most notable recent versions. These large language models have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in natural language processing, text generation, and understanding context12. Another innovative product is DALL-E, an AI model that can generate unique images from text descriptions, pushing the boundaries of AI-powered creativity3.

OpenAI monetizes these technologies through various channels. They offer API access to their models, allowing developers and businesses to integrate AI capabilities into their applications3. For consumer-facing products like ChatGPT, OpenAI employs a freemium model, offering basic functionality for free while providing advanced features and priority access through paid subscriptions2. The company has also developed other notable technologies, such as Codex for code generation and CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training) for image recognition and classification3. These innovations demonstrate OpenAI's commitment to advancing AI research and creating practical applications that benefit society while generating revenue to support their ongoing research and development efforts45.

OpenAI has established strategic partnerships with various organizations to accelerate AI research and promote responsible AI deployment. The most significant collaboration is with Microsoft, which extended its partnership with OpenAI in 2023 through a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment12. This partnership provides OpenAI with access to Microsoft's advanced computational resources and helps integrate OpenAI's technologies into Microsoft's products and services.

Beyond tech giants, OpenAI collaborates with diverse sectors to push AI boundaries. The company works with academic institutions and research organizations to create open-source and private datasets for AI training3. These partnerships span technology, healthcare, finance, energy, and education, fostering innovation and addressing sector-specific challenges4. OpenAI's collaborative approach aims to ensure that AI development benefits society broadly, aligning with its mission to create safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence.