OpenAI founded as a non-profit AI research lab
OpenAI launched as a non-profit research company with a mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity, backed by pledges from Elon Musk, Sam Altman and others.
Key facts
- Announced 11 December 2015
- Backers pledged $1 billion in total (not all delivered)
- Co-chairs Sam Altman and Elon Musk; Ilya Sutskever research director; Greg Brockman CTO
- Created a capped-profit arm in 2019
What happened
OpenAI was announced alongside the NeurIPS 2015 conference as a non-profit dedicated to open AI research.
Why it matters
OpenAI went on to create GPT-3, ChatGPT and o1, becoming the most influential lab of the LLM era.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created
Related events
- OpenAI launches ChatGPT ★★★★★
- Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI ★★★
- OpenAI's board fires and then reinstates Sam Altman ★★★
Sources (2)
id: 2015-12-11-openai-founded · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline