In 2015, OpenAI launched as a nonprofit that promised to put people ahead of profit. By 2025, investors valued it at $500 billion. Here is how a small research lab and Sam Altman got there, side by side.
How this video is made: the narration is an AI voice (ElevenLabs), written by us from the sources below, and a human reviews each video before it goes out.
Sources: 1. OpenAI launch post, December 11 2015: a nonprofit, 'build value for everyone rather than shareholders', co-chairs Sam Altman and Elon Musk, Brockman and Sutskever, $1 billion committed and 'a tiny fraction' to be spent in the next few years (OpenAI), 2. Altman early life (first Mac at 8, St. Louis, Stanford dropout), Loopt sold for $43.4 million in 2012, YC president in 2014 (Wikipedia), 3. 2019 capped profit (100x cap), Microsoft $1 billion 2019 and $10 billion 2023, GPT 2 and GPT 3, ChatGPT 1 million users in 5 days, GPT 4 bar exam, 2025 restructuring into OpenAI Group PBC with the OpenAI Foundation owning about 26%, Stargate (Wikipedia), 4. ChatGPT at an estimated 100 million monthly users two months after launch (The Guardian), 5. Instagram passed 100 million monthly users in February 2013 (launched October 2010) (The Next Web), 6. Firing and return, November 17 to 22 2023, 'not consistently candid', 700+ of about 770 staff letter, Sutskever regret, three leaders in five days (Wikipedia), 7. Altman back as CEO (Reuters), 8. $500 billion valuation via share sale, October 2 2025 (Bloomberg), 9. $12 billion annualized revenue run rate, August 2025 (Reuters), 10. 800 million weekly ChatGPT users, DevDay October 2025 (TechCrunch), 11. Scale math: $500 billion / $1 million a day / 365 = about 1,370 years; $12 billion / 365 = about $33 million a day
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