Sam Altman and OpenAI Explained: Who Runs OpenAI and How It Makes Money

Who is Sam Altman?

Sam Altman is a US entrepreneur who became chief executive of OpenAI in 2019. Before that he co-founded the location app Loopt and was president of the startup accelerator Y Combinator. He is one of the best-known public faces of the AI industry. His views are his own, and so are the claims in his interviews, so treat them as one perspective.

What is OpenAI?

OpenAI was founded in December 2015 by a group that included Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever and Elon Musk, as a nonprofit with the goal of making advanced AI benefit humanity. It released ChatGPT on 30 November 2022, which brought AI chatbots to hundreds of millions of people. Its official site is openai.com.

A short timeline

• 2015: OpenAI is founded as a nonprofit.
• 2019: A for-profit arm is created and Sam Altman becomes CEO. Microsoft becomes a major partner and investor.
• 2022: ChatGPT launches.
• November 2023: The board removes Altman, then reinstates him within days after staff and investors push back.
• 2025: OpenAI restructures: a nonprofit, now called the OpenAI Foundation, controls a for-profit public benefit corporation, and Microsoft agrees a new long-term partnership. It also takes part in the Stargate data center project announced in January 2025.

How does OpenAI make money?

• Subscriptions to ChatGPT.
• Products for businesses and schools.
• Access for developers through its API, billed by usage.
• Partnerships, including with Microsoft.

Training and running AI models needs enormous computing power, which is OpenAI's biggest cost. Always check recent reporting for current revenue and funding, because the figures change quickly.

Can you invest in OpenAI?

OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI are private companies, so you cannot buy their shares in a normal brokerage account. Some public companies have invested in them, but owning those shares is not the same as owning the AI company. Understand the difference between a company's AI strategy and the shares you actually own.

What are the risks and debates?

• Very high spending on computing, with profits not guaranteed.
• Competition from Google, Anthropic, Meta and others.
• Questions about safety, copyright and how the company is governed.
• Legal disputes, including a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk, one of its co-founders.

What should you ask before forming a view?

1. Who controls the company, and how is it governed?
2. How does it make money, and what does it spend?
3. How dependent is it on one partner or one product?
4. What would change if a competitor's model were better or cheaper?

Want to learn how to use AI yourself?

Join the free 90-minute live masterclass, every Friday, 7 PM IST (India) or 7 PM ET (everywhere else).

Register for the masterclass now