In September 2024, Reuters reported that OpenAI is planning a restructuring that will see the non-profit turn into a for-profit firm as a way to make it “extra enticing to buyers.” The non-profit OpenAI will nonetheless exist by itself and have a minority stake within the for-profit firm. CEO Sam Altman can even obtain an fairness place within the new for-profit OpenAI. The corporate is planning to make this transition in 2025.
OpenAI accomplished a brand new spherical of funding totaling US$6.6 billion in early October projected to carry its valuation to greater than US$157 billion. Tech giants NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) took half within the funding spherical.
Many buyers are questioning if it is doable to put money into ChatGPT inventory, and if there are different methods to put money into generative AI. Right here the Investing Information Community (INN) solutions these questions and extra, shedding gentle on this new panorama.
What’s OpenAI’s ChatGPT?
Created by San Francisco-based tech lab OpenAI, ChatGPT is a generative AI software program software that makes use of a machine studying method referred to as reinforcement studying from human suggestions (RLHF) to emulate human-written conversations based mostly on a wide variety of person prompts. This type of software program is healthier often called an AI chatbot.
ChatGPT learns language by coaching on texts gleaned from throughout the web, together with on-line encyclopedias, books, educational journals, information websites and blogs. Based mostly on this coaching, the AI chatbot generates textual content by making predictions about which phrases (or tokens) will be strung collectively to supply probably the most appropriate response.
Greater than one million individuals engaged with ChatGPT throughout the first week of its launch for free public testing on November 30, 2022. The introduction of ChatGPT rapidly ushered in a brand new period within the tech business.
“With the launch of ChatGPT late in 2022, the true scale of its disruptive potential was extra realized the world over in 2023,” stated Naseem Husain, senior vice chairman and exchange-traded fund (ETF) strategist at Horizons ETFs, in an interview with the Investing Information Community. “Its success has sparked a wave of generative and chat AI fashions, from Midjourney to Grok.”
Based mostly on this success, OpenAI created a extra {powerful} model of the ChatGPT system referred to as GPT-4, which was launched in March 2023. This iteration of ChatGPT can settle for visible inputs, is far more exact and might show the next degree of experience in varied topics. Due to this, GPT-4 can describe photographs in vivid element and ace standardized assessments.
Not like its predecessor, GPT-4 would not have any closing dates on what data it might probably entry; nevertheless, AI researcher and professor Dr. Oren Etzioni has stated that the chatbot continues to be horrible at discussing the long run and producing new concepts. It additionally hasn’t misplaced its tendency to ship incorrect data with too excessive a level of confidence.
Additional enhancing on its product, in Could 2024 OpenAI launched Chat GPT-4o, with the o standing for omni. OpenAI describes GPT-4o as “a step in direction of far more pure human-computer interplay—it accepts as enter any mixture of textual content, audio, picture, and video and generates any mixture of textual content, audio, and picture outputs.”
This model has performed away with the lagging response time afflicting GPT-4. This proves particularly useful for producing rapid translations throughout conversations between audio system of various languages. It additionally permits customers to interrupt the chatbot to pose a brand new question to change responses.
Extra just lately, in December 2024, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Professional subscriptions concentrating on engineers and teachers. For US$200 month-to-month, customers have practically limitless entry to all ChatGPT fashions and instruments.
The ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT-4 platforms are free to make use of, and will be accessed by way of the online. These with an iPhone or iPad can even use ChatGPT by an app, and an Android model launched in July 2023. OpenAI additionally launched a paid subscription, ChatGPT Plus for enterprise use, in August 2023. ChatGPT Plus offers customers entry to GPT-4 and the most recent iteration GPT-4o.
What’s the Stargate Undertaking?
The Stargate Undertaking is an AI three way partnership targeted on constructing new AI infrastructure within the US by US$500 billion in investments. It was introduced on January 21, 2025.
Stargate’s preliminary funding is coming from OpenAI, Japanese multinational funding agency SoftBank, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and UAE-based know-how fund MGX. Along with OpenAI and Oracle, Stargate’s know-how companions embody Microsoft, NVIDIA, and British semiconductor and software program design firm Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM).
Newly re-elected US President Trump unveiled Stargate throughout a press convention on the White Home highlighting the significance of funding in US AI infrastructure. Through the announcement, OpenAI’s Altman, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son credited President Trump’s return to workplace as a significant catalyst in making Stargate a actuality. The development of knowledge facilities for the Stargate Undertaking are already underway in Texas, based on Ellison.
How a lot has Microsoft invested in OpenAI?
Ascannio / Shutterstock
Through the years, Microsoft has reportedly invested practically US$14 billion in OpenAI to assist the small tech agency create its ultra-powerful AI chatbot.
As for a way Microsoft may gain advantage from its funding in OpenAI, OpenAI formally licensed its applied sciences to Microsoft in 2020 in a then-exclusive partnership. Certainly, Pitchbook has described the deal as an “unprecedented milestone” for generative AI know-how. Since then, Microsoft has made good use of OpenAI’s know-how in creating new development in its Azure cloud computing enterprise.
Nonetheless, the connection between the 2 has modified in latest months.
Notably, Microsoft is just not a financier of the Stargate Undertaking three way partnership, and is as a substitute simply described as a know-how companion. In keeping with OpenAI’s press launch, the brand new three way partnership builds on its current partnership with Microsoft.
Microsoft’s lack of a funding function in Stargate led some to surprise if the trillion-dollar tech agency had soured on its relationship with OpenAI. This conclusion was comprehensible given reviews that Microsoft refused to make a much bigger contribution than the US$750 million it invested through the OpenAI US$6.6 billion funding spherical in October.
Moreover, Microsoft modified the contract between the 2 corporations and is now not the unique cloud supplier for OpenAI, however has the correct of first refusal for offers the AI agency could make with different cloud corporations.
As Bloomberg know-how reporter Dina Bass defined, Microsoft stands to profit from its function as a know-how companion with out having to take a position a dime into the venture.
“Microsoft views the revised contract with OpenAI as advantageous, based on individuals conversant in the corporate’s pondering. The software program big retains its share of OpenAI’s income and is the biggest investor in an organization that will now turn into much more helpful — although the dimensions of that stake may change because the startup works to restructure as a for-profit,” wrote Bass. “And Microsoft additionally nonetheless has entry to OpenAI fashions, even when they’re skilled in a knowledge middle funded by Softbank or Oracle.”
Elon Musk’s place on OpenAI
DIA TV / Shutterstock
OpenAI was based in 2015 by Altman, its present CEO, in addition to Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and different big-name buyers, comparable to enterprise capitalist Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Musk left his place on OpenAI’s board of administrators in 2018 to give attention to Tesla and its pursuit of autonomous car know-how.
A number of days after ChatGPT grew to become obtainable for public testing, Musk took to X, previously often called Twitter, to say, “ChatGPT is frightening good. We’re not removed from dangerously robust AI.” That very same day, he introduced that X had shut the door on OpenAI’s entry to its database so it may now not use it for RLHF coaching.
His motive: “OpenAI was began as open-source & non-profit. Neither are nonetheless true.”
Furthering his feud with OpenAI, Musk filed a lawsuit in opposition to the corporate in March 2024 for an alleged breach of contract. The crux of his criticism was that OpenAI has damaged the “founding settlement” made between the founders (Altman, Greg Brockman and himself) that the corporate would stay a non-profit. Altman and OpenAI have denied there was such an settlement and that Musk was eager on an eventual for-profit construction.
Musk dropped the lawsuit three months later with out giving a motive, reported Reuters. The day earlier than he dropped the lawsuit, he reacted to the information that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is partnering with OpenAI to include ChatGPT with Apple gadgets. On X, Musk declared, “If Apple integrates OpenAI on the OS (working system)degree, then Apple gadgets will probably be banned at my corporations. That’s an unacceptable safety violation.” It must be famous that OpenAI has stated queries accomplished on Apple gadgets won’t be saved by OpenAI. By August 2024, Musk had resumed his litigation in federal courtroom.
Evidently the US authorities additionally has questions in regards to the restructuring of the personal firm and the involvement of tech big Microsoft, as reported by Bloomberg. In early January 2025, the Monetary Press additionally reported the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) has raised questions in regards to the potential anti-trust violations within the newly rising AI know-how area arising from Microsoft’s partnership with and investments in OpenAI.
In fact, Musk took to X to weigh in on the Stargate Undertaking, suggesting OpenAI and its companions don’t even have the US$500 million they’ve pledged to take a position. Sam Altman was fast to answer, telling Musk he’s mistaken and welcoming him to go to their information middle below development in Texas.
Nonetheless, Musk is just not alone in his skepticism. For instance, Atreides Administration Chief Funding Workplace Gavin Baker additionally questioned the deal on X. “Stargate is a superb title however the $500b is a ridiculous quantity and nobody ought to take it severely,” stated Baker, backing up his assertion by explaining the monetary positions of every of the companions. “Nowhere near $500b. Everybody ought to simply begin issuing press releases for $1 trillion AI tasks,” he added.
OpenAI criticisms and lawsuits
Whereas ChatGPT has served as a significant step ahead in generative AI know-how, there are various technical and moral issues with this system which have emerged because it launched, together with fears over job destruction and focused disinformation campaigns.
Accuracy of data in ChatGPT’s solutions is just not assured. Its choice of which phrases to string collectively are literally predictions — not as fallible as mere guesses, however nonetheless fallible. Even the 4.0 model is “nonetheless is just not absolutely dependable (it “hallucinates” details and makes reasoning errors),” says the corporate, which emphasizes that customers ought to train warning when using the know-how.
Certainly, ChatGPT’s failings can have harmful real-life penalties. Amongst different unfavorable functions, the tech can be utilized to unfold misinformation, perform phishing electronic mail scams or write malicious code.
There’s additionally the worry amongst lecturers that the know-how is resulting in an unwelcome rise in educational dishonesty, with college students utilizing ChatGPT to write down essays or full their homework.
“Academics and college directors have been scrambling to catch college students utilizing the software to cheat, and they’re fretting in regards to the havoc ChatGPT may wreak on their lesson plans,” writes New York Instances tech columnist Kevin Roose.
Many lawsuits in opposition to OpenAI have emerged as nicely. A number of information shops, together with the the New York Instances, have launched copyright lawsuits in opposition to OpenAI, and a few of the plaintiffs are additionally searching for damages from the personal tech agency’s very public companion Microsoft.
Moreover, the Authors Guild, which represents a bunch of outstanding authors, launched a class-action lawsuit in opposition to OpenAI that’s calling for a licensing system that will enable authors to decide out of getting their books used to coach AI, and would require AI corporations to pay for the fabric they do use.
In October, OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji blew the whistle on the corporate, reporting that the agency was violating US copyright legal guidelines. He died one month later in what was dominated a suicide, however the investigation continues to be open.
Cybersecurity dangers are additionally a priority for ChatGPT customers, and up to date occasions alongside these traces add validity to Musk’s warning. For one, in 2024 ChatGPT for macOS was found to be breaching Apple’s safety guidelines by storing information as plain textual content slightly than encryption, making it doable for different apps to entry.
What’s the way forward for OpenAI and ChatGPT?
What in regards to the long-term objectives for OpenAI and ChatGPT? For a lot of the tech leaders on this area, the finish recreation is synthetic normal intelligence (AGI) — a system that may carry out any perform the human mind can, together with self-teaching, summary pondering and understanding trigger and impact.
As uptake will increase, AI know-how is taking on the function of people and can seemingly proceed doing so in a variety of fields, from content material creation and customer support to transcription and translation providers, and even in graphic design, software program engineering and paralegal fields.
Along with Microsoft’s use of the ChatGPT know-how as a part of Copilot, different corporations are working with OpenAI to include the know-how into their platforms, together with Canva, Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL), Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE), Intercom, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), Scale, Stripe and Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK).
For 2025, OpenAI is specializing in creating agentic AI capabilities into its ChatGPT platform. Agentic AI, part of the evolution in direction of AGI, entails AI methods and fashions that may act autonomously and full duties with out a lot human steering. Early in January, OpenAI introduced the rollout of recent process options for ChatGPT Professional, Plus and Groups customers. Whereas nonetheless within the beta stage, these options enable customers to schedule future duties to be accomplished by ChatGPT, comparable to a weekly information transient or reminders about essential conferences.
OpenAI first debuted its foray into agentic AI in September 2024 with the introduction of ChatGPT o1, stating “We have developed a brand new sequence of AI fashions designed to spend extra time pondering earlier than they reply.” The discharge of the following iteration of this mannequin, ChatGPT o3 mini, is anticipated for 2025.
OpenAI is planning to transition to a for-profit firm in 2025. “As we enter 2025, we should turn into greater than a lab and a startup — we now have to turn into a permanent firm,” acknowledged the press launch. “The world is shifting to construct out a brand new infrastructure of power, land use, chips, information facilities, information, AI fashions, and AI methods for the twenty first century economic system. We search to evolve as a way to take the following step in our mission.”
Nonetheless, the corporate can count on to face obstacles to its transition from not solely Elon Musk however its different opponents together with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), and the complexity of its partnership with Microsoft.
The latest launch of Chinese language startup DeepSeek’s AI assistant could pose a fair greater drawback for OpenAI and the US tech business as an entire. In what tech gurus like Marc Andreesen name AI’s Sputnik second, DeepSeek unseated ChatGPT as probably the most downloaded free app within the Apple App Retailer, at reportedly a fraction of the fee. For reference, in 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, the earth’s first synthetic satellite tv for pc, beating out the US and sparking a Chilly Conflict area exploration race between the 2 nations.
The DeepSeek launch set off a major unload in know-how shares on January 27, 2025, particularly among the many Magnificent Seven members, together with NVIDIA, Microsoft and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
When will OpenAI go public?
OpenAI inventory is just not presently publicly traded, however following the latest transfer to restructure the corporate from a non-profit to a for-profit entity, an preliminary public providing (IPO) could also be within the works for 2025. For now, buyers can acquire publicity by associated tech corporations mentioned right here.
Which shares will profit probably the most from AI chatbot know-how?
Whereas most corporations specializing in generative AI stay within the enterprise capital stage, there are many AI shares for these within the area. INN’s article 5 Canadian Synthetic Intelligence Shares, ASX AI Shares: 5 Greatest Firms, and 12 Generative AI Shares to Watch as ChatGPT Soars consists of some examples.
Apart from corporations instantly tied to generative AI know-how, which shares are more likely to get a lift from generative AI developments?
There are a number of verticals within the tech business with oblique publicity to AI chatbot know-how, comparable to semiconductors, community gear suppliers, cloud suppliers, central processing unit producers and web of issues.
Among the publicly traded corporations in these verticals embody:
Buyers who don’t prefer to put all their eggs in a single basket can try these 5 Synthetic Intelligence ETFs. And in the event you’re in search of a extra normal overview of the market, INN has you lined with The best way to Spend money on Synthetic Intelligence. You may as well have a look again on the market in 2024 with our AI Market 2024 Yr-Finish Assessment, or learn projections for AI this yr in our AI Market Forecast: 3 Prime Developments that may Have an effect on AI in 2025. Generative AI can also be a significant theme within the Prime 10 Rising Applied sciences to Watch.
FAQs for investing in OpenAI and ChatGPT
How is OpenAI funded?
OpenAI raised US$17.9 billion over 10 funding rounds from 2016 to November 2024.
Prime buyers embody know-how funding agency Thrive Capital, enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz and revolutionary know-how funding agency Founders Fund.
What’s the market worth of ChatGPT/OpenAI?
OpenAI has a market valuation of US$157 billion as of October 2024. The corporate’s 2023 income had reached US$2 billion mark in December 2023 to affix the ranks of Google and Meta. OpenAI’s annualized income reached US$3.4 billion in Could 2024.
Does ChatGPT use NVIDIA chips?
ChatGPT’s distributed computing infrastructure relies upon upon {powerful} servers with a number of graphics processing items (GPUs). Excessive-performance NVIDIA GPU chips are most well-liked for this software as in addition they present glorious Compute Unified System Structure help.
What’s DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is a Chinese language AI firm that launched new AI-driven, open-source language fashions often called DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 into the market in January 2025. Reuters reviews that “the coaching of DeepSeek-V3 required lower than $6 million value of computing energy from Nvidia H800 chips.”
DeepSeek-R1 is designed to compete with the efficiency of OpenAI-o1 throughout math, code, and reasoning duties.
Can ChatGPT make inventory predictions?
A College of Florida research from 2023 highlighted the potential for superior language fashions comparable to ChatGPT to precisely predict actions within the inventory market utilizing sentiment evaluation.
Through the course of the research, ChatGPT outperformed conventional sentiment evaluation strategies, and the finance professors conducting the analysis concluded that “incorporating superior language fashions into the funding decision-making course of can yield extra correct predictions and improve the efficiency of quantitative buying and selling methods.”
When to count on ChatGPT 5?
In November 2024, Altman confirmed that ChatGPT-5 would not seemingly hit the market till later in 2025 as the corporate switched its focus to ChatGPT o1 and its successors.
Beforehand, OpenAI filed a trademark software for ChatGPT-5 in mid-July 2023, which hinted that the following iteration of the generative AI know-how is presently below improvement. There have been rumors the corporate deliberate to finish coaching for ChatGPT-5 by the top of 2023, however this didn’t materialize.
PC Information famous in April 2024 that Sam Altman had teased an “wonderful new mannequin this yr” in an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast. The next month, tech author Suswati Basu shared in a weblog that OpenAI confirmed {that a} new mannequin is within the works, and she or he predicted an anticipated launch in late 2024 or early 2025.
That is an up to date model of an article first printed by the Investing Information Community in 2023.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, maintain no direct funding curiosity in any firm talked about on this article.
