(Reuters) -Microsoft and OpenAI reached a deal to allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a public benefit corporation, valuing OpenAI at $500 billion and giving it more freedom in its business operations.
The Windows-maker will still hold a stake of about $135 billion, or roughly 27%, in OpenAI Group PBC, which will be controlled by the OpenAI Foundation, a nonprofit, the companies said.
Below is a timeline of important events related to the startup at the heart of the AI boom, since its inception:
Date Event
December 11, Tech executives including Elon Musk and Sam
2015 Altman announce the launch of OpenAI, pouring
in $1 billion to create the AI firm
2018 OpenAI announces that Musk is leaving its
board
2019 OpenAI creates for-profit arm to help raise
funds from investors
Nov. 17, OpenAI board fires CEO Altman and President
2023 Greg Brockman quits. Mira Murati named as
interim CEO
Nov. 18, Altman’s firing was over a “breakdown in
2023 communication between Sam and the board,” and
not “malfeasance”, COO Brad Lightcap says in
an internal memo
Nov. 20, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the Windows
2023 maker has hired Altman, Brockman and their
colleagues to lead a new advanced AI research
team
OpenAI appoints former Twitch boss Emmett
Shear as interim CEO. Shear pledges probe into
Altman’s exit.
Nearly all OpenAI staff threaten to quit and
join Altman at Microsoft, demanding board
resign and Altman and Brockman are reinstated
Nov. 21, OpenAI says Altman will return as CEO with a
2023 new initial board. Brockman will also return
Nov. 29, Altman says Microsoft will take a non-voting,
2023 observer position on OpenAI’s board
Dec. 13, Axel Springer partners with OpenAI in a
2023 first-of-its-kind deal to deliver summaries of
the global news publisher’s content
Dec. 27, The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft,
2023 accusing them of using the newspaper’s
articles without permission to train chatbots
Jan. 25, The FTC orders OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet,
2024 Amazon and Anthropic to provide information on
recent investments and partnerships as it
scrutinizes tech deals
Feb. 16, OpenAI completes a deal that values it at $80
2024 billion or more, according to media reports
March 1, Musk sues OpenAI and Altman, saying they
2024 abandoned the startup’s original mission to
develop AI for the benefit of humanity
March 8, Altman returns to the OpenAI board along with
2024 three new directors
May 14, 2024 OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya
Sutskever leaves the company
June 10, OpenAI hires Sarah Friar, former CEO of social
2024 media firm Nextdoor, as its first CFO
June 11, Musk moves to dismiss his lawsuit against
2024 OpenAI and Altman
July 10, Microsoft gives up its board observer seat at
2024 OpenAI
August 5, Musk revives lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI
2024
September OpenAI’s three top technical leaders,
25, 2024 including CTO Mira Murati, quit the company
October 2, OpenAI raises $6.6 billion, valuing the
2024 company at $157 billion
December 27, OpenAI says it plans to revamp its for-profit
2024 arm into a public benefit corporation (PBC) to
ease the restrictions imposed by its current
non-profit parent
January 14, Private equity veteran Adebayo Ogunlesi, CEO
2025 of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), joins
OpenAI’s board
January 21, OpenAI plans joint venture with SoftBank and
2025 Oracle to build up to $500 billion of new AI
data centers in the United States
Microsoft changes its exclusive deal terms
with OpenAI to allow the company to build
additional data center capacity, paving the
way for the JV
January 22, OpenAI and SoftBank say they will each commit
2025 $19 billion to fund Stargate, a joint venture
to develop data centers for AI in the U.S
January 30, SoftBank Group is in talks to lead a funding
2025 round of up to $40 billion in OpenAI at a
valuation of $300 billion, including new
funds, sources say
February 10, A consortium led by Musk offers to buy the
2025 nonprofit that controls OpenAI for $97.4
billion.
February 11, OpenAI’s board has not received Musk’s
2025 takeover bid, source says
February 13, Consortium led by Musk will withdraw its bid
2025 for OpenAI’s non-profit arm if the startup
drops plans to become a for-profit entity,
Musk’s lawyers say
February 14, OpenAI rejects Musk’s bid for the ChatGPT
2025 maker, saying the startup is not for sale and
that any future bid would be disingenuous
March 4, A U.S. judge denies Musk’s request for a
2025 preliminary injunction to pause OpenAI’s
transition to a for-profit model but agrees to
a fast-track trial in the fall of this year
March 5, Britain drops its probe into Microsoft’s
2025 partnership with OpenAI
March 15, OpenAI and Musk agree to fast-track a trial
2025 over for-profit shift
March 28, OpenAI must transition to a for-profit company
2025 by the end of the year to secure the full $40
billion funding led by SoftBank, a source says
April 1, OpenAI officially announces raising up to $40
2025 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank
Group at a $300 billion valuation
April 4, Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI will go to a
2025 jury trial in spring 2026, federal judge
presiding over the case decides
April 9, OpenAI countersues Musk, citing a pattern of
2025 harassment by him
April 15, OpenAI names members to its newly formed
2025 nonprofit commission, which will guide the
company’s philanthropic efforts
April 16, OpenAI in discussions to buy AI-assisted
2025 coding tool Windsurf for about $3 billion –
report
May 5, 2025 OpenAI says it would remain under the control
of its nonprofit parent, while pushing ahead
with plans to change the structure of its
for-profit arm
May 8, 2025 Instacart head Fidji Simo
steps down to join OpenAI as its
chief of applications
May 19, 2025 OpenAI prevails
in a lawsuit in Georgia
that accused the ChatGPT maker of
defaming a radio host by fabricating
allegations and a fictional lawsuit against
him
May 21, 2025 OpenAI buys Jony Ive’s
startup io Products
in a $6.5 billion deal
May 28, 2025 OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar says the
startup’s restructuring plans position it for
a potential future IPO
OpenAI says its annualized revenue run rate
June 9, 2025 surged to $10 billion as of June
June 10, OpenAI plans to add
2025 Alphabet’s Google cloud service
to meet its growing needs for
computing capacity, three sources tell Reuters
OpenAI wins a $200 million contract to provide
June 16, the U.S. Defense Department with artificial
2025 intelligence tools
July 17, OpenAI launches AI agent for its ChatGPT
2025
July 22, OpenAI and Oracle expand their tie-up to
2025 develop another 4.5 gigawatts of data center
capacity
July 23, OpenAI wins trademark lawsuit over ‘Open
2025 Artificial Intelligence’
July 31, OpenAI plans to build its first Stargate data
2025 center project in Europe, partnering with
developer Nscale Global Holdings and
investment group Aker ASA
August 18, OpenAI releases
2025 ChatGPT Go, a new India-only
subscription
plan priced at 399 rupees per
month
August 21, OpenAI announces to open first India office in
2025 New Delhi
September 2, OpenAI says it will
2025 acquire Statsig
in an all-stock deal valuing the
product testing startup at about $1.1 billion
based on OpenAI’s current valuation of $300
billion
September Microsoft and OpenAI sign a non-binding deal
11, 2025 for new relationship terms that would allow
OpenAI to proceed to restructure itself into a
for-profit company
September OpenAI hires Mike Liberatore, former finance
16, 2025 chief at Musk’s xAI, to be the AI startup’s
business finance officer
September Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in
22, 2025 OpenAI and supply it with data center chips
September OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank announce plans for
23, 2025 five new AI data centers in the U.S.
September OpenAI rolls out parental controls for ChatGPT
29, 2025 on the web and mobile
OpenAI introduces a feature that
September would allow users
29, 2025 to make purchases
through ChatGPT, in partnership
with Etsy and Shopify
September OpenAI launches AI video tool Sora as
30, 2025 standalone app
October 2, OpenAI reaches a valuation of $500 billion,
2025 following a deal in which current and former
employees sold roughly $6.6 billion worth of
shares, a source tells Reuters
October 7, AMD will supply AI chips to OpenAI in a
2025 multi-year deal that would bring in tens of
billions of dollars in annual revenue and give
the ChatGPT creator the option to buy up to
roughly 10% of the chipmaker
October 13, OpenAI partners with Broadcom to produce its
2025 first in-house AI processors
October 21, OpenAI
2025 unveils ChatGPT Atlas
, a long-anticipated AI-powered
web browser built around its popular chatbot
October 28, OpenAI says it will offer ChatGPT Go free to
2025 users in India for one year starting November
4
October 28, Microsoft and OpenAI reach a deal to allow the
2025 ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a
public benefit corporation, valuing OpenAI at
$500 billion
(Reporting by Akash Sriram, Arsheeya Bajwa, Zaheer Kachwala, Kritika Lamba, Harshita Mary Varghese and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Rosalba O’Brien, Shinjini Ganguli and Maju Samuel)
