OpenAI

Who is betting on what in AI, and against whom.

GPT lineage through GPT-6 Astra (September 2026), o-series reasoning, agents. Also dabbling in world simulation and robotics.

HQ: San Francisco
Founded: Dec 2015
Web: openai.com
Camps: LLM scaling World models Physical AI

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What it does

OpenAI trained the GPT series on internet text, then added reinforcement learning from human feedback and, with the o-series, reinforcement learning on verifiable outcomes. Its bet is that scale plus post-training plus tools gets to general capability. It filed confidentially for an IPO in June 2026, a week after Anthropic.

Camp membership over time

dates not recorded

Scale next-token prediction
GPT lineage, o-series reasoning, agents. Filed confidentially for an IPO in June 2026.

Sources OpenAI files confidentially for IPO, following Anthropic TechCrunch 2026-06-08
dates not recorded

World models (secondary)
Sora positioned as a world simulator.

Sources Video generation models as world simulators (Sora technical report) OpenAI 2024-02-15
dates not recorded

Physical AI and robotics (secondary)
Rebuilt a robotics and hardware group from late 2024; its hardware lead resigned in March 2026 over a Pentagon contract.

Sources Caitlin Kalinowski Wikipedia 2026-09-04

Capital

Amount	Kind	Valuation	Date	Investors	Source
$10B	strategic investment		Jan 2023	Microsoft Multiyear, multibillion-dollar extension of the Microsoft partnership; $10B widely reported.	The Verge
$6.60B	funding round	$157B post-money	Oct 2024	Thrive Capital, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank	TechCrunch
$40B	funding round	$300B post-money	Mar 2025	SoftBank SoftBank committed $30B of the $40B.	CNBC
$122B	funding round	$852B post-money	Mar 2026	Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank Announced at $110B on 27 February (Amazon $50B, Nvidia $30B, SoftBank $30B); closed at $122B on 31 March, including $3B from retail investors.	CNBC, CNBC