OpenAI

Updated in June, 2025

 

Headquarters: San Francisco

Year Founded: 2015

Employees: ~400 | 2022

Business Status: Generating Revenue

Industry Sectors: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

What is Open AI?

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI), by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at the most economically valuable work, benefits all of humanity. The company trained a model called ChatGPT, which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format allows ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.

Is Open AI Publicly Traded?

OpenAI is a private company; its shares can be bought pre-IPO from private investors. OpenAI continues to operate as a private company despite achieving remarkable financial milestones. The company has reached $10 billion in annualized revenue as of June 2025, representing explosive growth from $3.7 billion in 2024. This revenue encompasses ChatGPT consumer offerings, business solutions, and API services, though it excludes licensing income from Microsoft.

The company is valued at $300 billion following a massive $40 billion funding round in March 2025, which represents the largest private technology deal ever recorded. This valuation places OpenAI among the world’s most valuable private companies, ranking just behind SpaceX ($350 billion).

How to invest in OpenAI

OpenAI is a high-profile defense tech company that remains private—meaning retail investors can’t buy shares on public markets. IPO CLUB offers accredited investors exclusive access to secondary shares in companies like Anduril through curated, fully compliant vehicles. To explore available allocations or request the investment memo, click on the button below or contact us directly.

Most Recent Financing Status

In March 2025, OpenAI completed the largest private technology funding round in history, raising $40 billion at a valuation of $300 billion. This represents nearly double the company’s previous valuation of $157 billion from October 2024.

SoftBank Group leads this massive funding round with a $30 billion commitment, while the remaining $10 billion comes from investors including Microsoft, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital Management, and Thrive Capital. The funding will be distributed in phases, starting with an initial $10 billion, followed by the remaining $30 billion before the end of 2025.

Who owns Open AI?

OpenAI has a unique ownership structure that remains nonprofit-controlled despite having for-profit operations. The company is owned and controlled by OpenAI, Inc., a nonprofit organization, which maintains governance over all OpenAI activities through a complex hybrid structure.

Current Ownership Structure

OpenAI, Inc. (Nonprofit) serves as the parent organization and controlling entity. The nonprofit wholly owns and controls a manager entity (OpenAI GP LLC) that has the power to govern the for-profit subsidiary. This structure ensures that the nonprofit’s mission—developing safe AGI that broadly benefits humanity—takes precedence over profit maximization.

OpenAI Global, LLC operates as the capped-profit subsidiary under nonprofit control. This for-profit arm conducts the company’s commercial operations, including ChatGPT and API services, but remains subject to the nonprofit’s mission and governance.

Key Stakeholders and Investors

Microsoft holds the largest external investment position, having invested over $13 billion since 2019. Microsoft is entitled to receive a portion of profits up to the cap, but does not have control over the company.

SoftBank Group recently led a massive $40 billion funding round in March 2025, with a $30 billion commitment, making it one of the largest investors.

Other significant investors include Thrive Capital, Coatue Management, and Altimeter Capital Management, all of whom participated in recent funding rounds but do not have controlling interests.

Elon Musk Open AI

Elon Musk and OpenAI have a complex and increasingly contentious relationship that spans nearly a decade, evolving from collaborative co-founding to bitter legal disputes and hostile takeover attempts.

Co-Founding and Early Collaboration

Musk co-founded OpenAI in December 2015 alongside Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and others. The nonprofit was established with a mission to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) “in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole”. Musk was deeply involved in the early years, serving as co-chair and contributing over $44 million between 2016 and 2020, covering significant funding shortfalls when initial pledges from other backers fell short.

At the time, Musk viewed AI as the “biggest existential threat” to humanity and championed the nonprofit structure as a counter to profit-driven AI development at companies like Google. The founding group had collectively pledged $1 billion to the venture.

The 2018 Departure and Power Struggle

The relationship began deteriorating in early 2018 when Musk became concerned that OpenAI had “fallen fatally behind Google”. In response, Musk proposed taking control of OpenAI and running it himself to accelerate progress and compete more effectively. However, Altman and other OpenAI founders rejected this proposal, leading to Musk’s departure from the board in February 2018.

Following the rejection, Musk reneged on a massive planned donation, creating significant financial challenges for the organization. As Altman later described it: “It was very tough. I had to reorient a lot of my life and time to make sure we had enough funding”.

Open AI Stock

OpenAI stock is primarily held by founders, employees, and early investors. Until a liquidity event, such as an IPO or M&A transaction, the company remains privately owned. Investors seeking exposure to OpenAI should explore opportunities in the private markets, where certain brokers, platforms, or funds may offer access. OpenAI is currently in the pipeline for America 2030 IPO CLUB’s $50 million actively managed secondary fund, which focuses on U.S. defense, energy, security, and AI. Investors may also participate through our single-name SPV. To request more information, please click here.

Stock price source: IPO CLUB Valuation at Market© - Become a member for in-depth coverage

OpenAI does not have a public market stock price because it is not publicly traded. As a private company, OpenAI shares are not available on public stock exchanges and therefore do not have a traditional stock price that retail investors can access. Despite being private, there are limited ways for qualified investors to access Open AI shares. Accredited investors can purchase Open AI stock through early investors such as IPO CLUB.

Open AI Stock Symbol

OpenAI does not have a stock symbol because it is not publicly traded. The company remains privately held as of June 2025, with no ticker symbol assigned on any stock exchange.

OpenAI Valuation

As of July 2025, OpenAI is valued at $300 billion following a record-setting $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank and other major investors, including Microsoft, Thrive Capital, and Altimeter. This valuation nearly doubles the company’s worth from late 2024 and places OpenAI among the most valuable private companies in the world, alongside SpaceX and ByteDance. The surge in valuation is driven by explosive revenue growth—OpenAI is on track to generate $12.7 billion in revenue in 2025, up from $3.7 billion in 2024, fueled by the widespread adoption of ChatGPT and its enterprise AI services. Despite substantial losses (around $5 billion in 2024), investor enthusiasm remains high due to OpenAI’s market leadership in generative AI, its strategic partnership with Microsoft, and the rapid expansion of its user base, which now exceeds 500 million weekly active users.

OpenAI Status

From an investor’s point of view, OpenAI’s business status in mid-2025 is defined by explosive revenue growth, massive capital requirements, and ongoing structural transformation. The company is on track to generate $12–13 billion in revenue this year, up from $3.7 billion in 2024, driven by rapid enterprise adoption, product innovation, and a user base exceeding 500 million. However, OpenAI is still operating at a significant loss, with projected annual expenses potentially exceeding $28 billion and cumulative losses expected to reach $14 billion by 2026.

Investor confidence remains high, as evidenced by a recent $40 billion funding round that values OpenAI at $300 billion, but this optimism is tempered by the company’s urgent need to restructure from a capped-profit, nonprofit-controlled model to a standard for-profit entity by the end of 2025—a requirement tied to securing $10 billion in SoftBank funding and avoiding costly clawback provisions for previous investors.

The long-term outlook hinges on OpenAI’s ability to maintain its innovation lead, manage escalating infrastructure costs, and execute a complex governance transition. While the financial upside is enormous if OpenAI can deliver on its vision, the risks—structural, competitive, and regulatory—are equally significant at this stage.

Is ChatGPT Free?

ChatGPT is available for free, but with limitations. In 2025, OpenAI offers a robust free tier powered by GPT-4o mini or GPT-3.5, providing basic conversational AI, standard research help, and language translation. However, free users face daily usage limits, slower response times, and restricted access to advanced features like file uploads, data analysis, and the most powerful models.

For users needing more capability, paid plans are available:

• Plus: $20/month, offering priority access, faster speeds, advanced models (like GPT-4o), and enhanced features.

• Pro: $200/month, with unlimited access to the latest models, advanced research tools, and priority support.

• Team and Enterprise: For businesses, plans start at $25–$30/user/month and scale up for advanced security, admin controls, and integrations.

In summary, anyone can use ChatGPT for free with basic features, while advanced functionality and higher limits require a paid subscription.

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