OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is preparing for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) this year, signifying a pivotal shift from a project initially designed for the “common good” to a market-driven entity.
Founded in 2015 by Sam Altman and Elon Musk amidst rising concerns about artificial intelligence (AI), OpenAI initially adopted a non-profit structure. Its stated goal was to develop AI that is “beneficial to humanity” and prevent its concentration in the hands of a few dominant players. This ambition distinguished it from tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, which operate on proprietary models and rent-seeking effects.
OpenAI aimed to champion public interest through open research and knowledge sharing. However, this orientation quickly encountered a significant hurdle: the astronomical costs associated with generative AI.
Massive Operational Costs
Unlike traditional software, where marginal costs approach zero (e.g., the millionth copy of Windows costs Microsoft nothing), generative AI demands extensive infrastructure. Every interaction utilizes computing resources, energy, and specialized equipment. A standard ChatGPT query (one question, one answer) costs between $0.01 and $0.10, while generating a high-definition image can cost between $0.10 and $0.20. While these figures seem negligible individually, they become staggering when scaled to billions of daily queries projected for 2026.
These costs are largely driven by the underlying infrastructure, particularly Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) supplied by companies like Nvidia. These chips can cost tens of thousands of dollars to purchase and several dollars per hour via cloud access. OpenAI, like its competitors, relies on tens of thousands of these GPUs running continuously in massive data centers. Some estimates project necessary investments to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of this decade.
By the late 2010s, it became evident that a purely non-profit model could not sustain such capital intensity. This led OpenAI to adopt a hybrid status in 2019, allowing it to raise funds while retaining control through a foundation. This marked its first strategic foray into the market economy, albeit tempered by the aim of resisting excessive investor demands.
Brutal Acceleration with ChatGPT
The landscape dramatically changed with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. It attracted 100 million users in just two months and surpassed 900 million weekly users by early 2026. This exponential growth led to a surge in OpenAI’s revenue, increasing from approximately $200 million in 2022 to over $10 billion in 2025—a sixty-fold increase in three years. This growth was accompanied by the implementation of a business model featuring multiple revenue streams, including paid subscriptions for individual users.