# OpenAI
> San Francisco, California
- Profile type: Company
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-03T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/openai/
- Also known as: OpenAI Inc., OpenAI Global, OpenAI LLC
## Summary
OpenAI is the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT, the GPT family of large language models, DALL-E, and the Sora video model. Founded December 2015 as a non-profit and restructured in 2019 to a capped-profit hybrid, OpenAI sits in our coverage as the consumer-facing AI surface driving studio licensing deals (including the Disney-Sora arrangement) and as the central counterparty in copyright fair-use debates over generative-AI training data.

## Company facts

- Founded: 2015
- Headquarters: San Francisco, California
- Domain: openai.com


## Key facts

- OpenAI was founded in December 2015 by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and others as a non-profit research organization with the stated mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits humanity. — OpenAI: https://openai.com/our-structure
- OpenAI restructured in 2019 to a 'capped-profit' hybrid (OpenAI LP), with the original non-profit OpenAI Inc. retaining governance authority over the for-profit arm; the company has been working through a further restructuring through 2025–2026 to a public-benefit-corporation model. — OpenAI: https://openai.com/our-structure
- OpenAI launched ChatGPT to the public in November 2022; the product became one of the fastest consumer-app adoption stories on record and anchored OpenAI's position as the leading consumer-facing AI surface. — OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/
- Microsoft is OpenAI's largest financial backer and primary cloud-infrastructure partner, with a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment partnership announced in January 2023 building on prior Microsoft investments. — Microsoft: https://news.microsoft.com/2023/01/23/microsoftandopenaiextendpartnership/
- OpenAI's Sora video model has been at the center of studio-AI licensing arrangements, including the disclosed Disney licensing deal bringing more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters into Sora — a deal Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg has framed as a 'shift from behind the model to in front of the model.' — Ryan Steelberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansteelberg
- OpenAI is privately held; the company does not file standard SEC quarterly reports as a public company, but it has disclosed funding rounds, valuations, and partnership terms through company announcements and through the public commentary of its investors. — OpenAI: https://openai.com/news/


## Related

- peter csathy (Recurring subject of AI-and-copyright analysis (Creative Media)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/peter-csathy/
- ryan steelberg (Recurring subject of AI-IP licensing commentary (Veritone)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/ryan-steelberg/
- the walt disney company (Studio-AI licensing counterparty (Sora characters arrangement)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/the-walt-disney-company/
- microsoft (Strategic partner / largest financial backer) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/microsoft/


## External coverage

- OpenAI: OpenAI — corporate site (https://openai.com/)
- OpenAI: OpenAI — Our Structure (https://openai.com/our-structure)
- OpenAI: OpenAI — News and Announcements (https://openai.com/news/)
- 2023-01-23 — Microsoft: Microsoft and OpenAI extend partnership (https://news.microsoft.com/2023/01/23/microsoftandopenaiextendpartnership/)

## Profile
OpenAI is the AI research and deployment company whose consumer-facing surfaces — ChatGPT, the GPT family of large language models, DALL-E, and the Sora video model — have become the structural counterparty in a series of debates the trade press is now narrating without having a stable framework for: copyright fair-use in generative-AI training data, studio-AI licensing economics, and the broader question of how content rights holders position themselves relative to consumer-facing AI products.

The company was founded in December 2015 as a non-profit research organization and restructured in 2019 to a capped-profit hybrid, with a further restructuring through 2025–2026 toward a public-benefit-corporation model. ChatGPT's November 2022 public launch was the inflection point — both for the consumer adoption arc and for the studio licensing pipeline that followed. The disclosed Disney arrangement bringing more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters into Sora is the most visible recent example of the new licensing posture: rights holders moving from training-data inputs (where they were primarily plaintiffs) to consumer-facing surface position (where they are partners) — the framing Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg has used most consistently.

Microsoft is OpenAI's largest financial backer and primary cloud-infrastructure partner, with a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar partnership announced in January 2023 that built on prior Microsoft investments and that has shaped both companies' strategic positioning across AI infrastructure and consumer products. OpenAI remains privately held and does not file standard SEC quarterly reports, but funding rounds, valuations, and partnership terms surface through company announcements and investor commentary.
## Coverage on The State of Streaming
- [Agentic AI Just Crossed Into the Workflow, Six Weeks Before NY's Disclosure Cliff](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/04/agentic-ai-creative-production-adobe-deepdub-2026/) — 2026-04-27
- [Agentic AI Just Crossed Into the Workflow, Six Weeks Before NY's Disclosure Cliff](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/04/agentic-ai-creative-production-adobe-deepdub-2026-2/) — 2026-04-27

## Tags

- private-company
- ai-research
- generative-ai
- chatgpt
- sora
- dall-e
- studio-licensing
- copyright

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