Editorial illustration for OpenAI, a Series F San Francisco startup founded in 2015 by eight pioneers
OpenAI: How a Startup Survived AI's Boom-Bust Cycle
OpenAI, a Series F San Francisco startup founded in 2015 by eight pioneers
Why does a 2015 San Francisco AI lab still dominate headlines? Because it has survived the boom‑and‑bust cycle that swallowed many early‑stage ventures, and now sits at the tail end of a Series F round. While dozens of U.S.
AI startups chase hype, this one grew from a small collective of researchers who banded together after years of work in machine learning, robotics and deep‑learning theory. The funding milestone signals that investors still see value in a model that began as a pure research effort rather than a commercial product push. Here’s the thing: the company’s origins are tied to a handful of pioneers whose names have become almost synonymous with modern AI.
Their early vision—to build an open‑source platform for artificial intelligence—still frames the conversation about safety, accessibility and scale. The partnership signals a rare blend of academic rigor and venture backing, a mix that few other firms can claim. OpenAI OpenAI is a Series F startup company based in San Francisco, founded in 2015 by Greg Brockman, John Schulman, Andrej Karpathy, Wojciech Zaremba, Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Durk Kingma, Pamela Vagata, Elon Musk, Trevor Blackwell, and Vicki Cheung.
Originally conceived as a research organisati
OpenAI OpenAI is a Series F startup company based in San Francisco, founded in 2015 by Greg Brockman, John Schulman, Andrej Karpathy, Wojciech Zaremba, Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Durk Kingma, Pamela Vagata, Elon Musk, Trevor Blackwell, and Vicki Cheung. Originally conceived as a research organisation focused on ensuring artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits humanity, OpenAI has since evolved into the most influential AI company in the world. The company has raised $57.9 billion across nine funding rounds from investors including Microsoft, Thrive Capital, and MIS, and currently carries a valuation of $500 billion.
OpenAI sits squarely among the handful of U.S. AI startups that now shape how the technology is built, financed and deployed. Founded in 2015 by a roster that includes Greg Brockman, John Schulman, Andrej Karpathy, Wojciech Zaremba, Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Durk Kingma, Pamela Vagata, Elon Musk, Trevor Blackwell and Vicki Cheung, the company has progressed to a Series F round and remains headquartered in San Francisco.
Its origins as a research organization suggest a focus on foundational models, yet its current status as a venture‑backed startup blurs the line between pure research and commercial ambition. As the article notes, such firms increasingly set technical standards, sway regulatory conversations and steer capital across sectors from chips to life sciences. Whether OpenAI’s choices will align with broader societal goals is still unclear; the impact on emerging ecosystems, such as India’s growing AI community, is mentioned only in passing.
The concentration of influence raises questions about accountability, especially as AI embeds deeper into global infrastructure. Ultimately, the facts point to a powerful player whose future role warrants close observation.
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Common Questions Answered
What is Prism and how does OpenAI describe its role in scientific research?
Prism is a free, web-based scientific workspace that integrates GPT-5.2 to assist researchers in writing, collaboration, and review processes. OpenAI describes it as an early step towards embedding AI more deeply into scientific workflows, designed to help review claims, refine arguments, and surface prior research while leaving critical judgement to human researchers.
How does GPT-5.2 improve professional knowledge work according to OpenAI?
GPT-5.2 is designed to unlock significant economic value, with OpenAI reporting that the average ChatGPT Enterprise user saves 40-60 minutes daily, and heavy users save more than 10 hours per week. The model demonstrates improved performance across various professional tasks, including creating spreadsheets, building presentations, writing code, and handling complex multi-step projects.
What are the key performance improvements of GPT-5.2 across different domains?
GPT-5.2 shows remarkable performance improvements across multiple domains, including outperforming industry professionals on the GDPval benchmark across 44 occupations with a 70.9% win or tie rate. The model also demonstrates significant advances in scientific reasoning, with a 92.4% score on GPQA Diamond science questions and a 100% success rate on the AIME 2025 competition math challenge.