Verify any claim · lenz.io
“OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research laboratory.”
The conclusion
Corporate records and contemporaneous reporting establish that OpenAI was founded in December 2015 as a nonprofit artificial-intelligence research organization. Reports that some operations began in early 2016 do not change its 2015 incorporation and public launch, while later restructuring does not alter its founding status.
Caveats
- Some accounts distinguish OpenAI's December 2015 founding from operations beginning in early 2016.
- OpenAI later created for-profit entities, but that does not change its original nonprofit founding.
- A few database pages contain unreliable date labels; incorporation records and contemporaneous reports provide stronger evidence.
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Sources
Sources used in the analysis
CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF A NON-STOCK CORPORATION OPENAI, INC. … THIRD: This Corporation shall be a nonprofit corporation organized exclusively for charitable and/or educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue law. The specific purpose of this corporation is to provide funding for research, development and distribution of technology related to artificial intelligence. … Executed on December 8, 2015. AUTHORIZED OFFICER ls/Jonathan Levy Jonathan Levy
FILED 02:22 PM 12/08/2015 SR 20151247198 - FileNumber 5902936 CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF A NON-STOCK CORPORATION OPENAI, INC. … THIRD: This Corporation shall be a nonprofit corporation organized exclusively for charitable and/or educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(c){3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue law. The specific purpose of this corporation is to provide funding for research, development and distribution of technology related to artificial intelligence.
Fact 1. OpenAI, Inc. (“OpenAI”) is a nonprofit corporation incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in California. … Fact 2. OpenAI filed its original certificate of incorporation with the Delaware Secretary of State on December 8, 2015.
C Name of organization 71 Address change OpenAlInc … I Tax-exempt status R 501(c)(3) … L Year of formation 2015
Today, OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company was announced to the world.
Today, Musk and a group of partners announced the formation of OpenAI, a nonprofit venture devoted to open-source research into artificial intelligence.
Back in 2016, a scientific research organization incorporated in Delaware and based in Mountain View, California, applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt charitable organization by the Internal Revenue Service. … Called OpenAI, the nonprofit told the IRS its goal was to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”
A group of prominent Silicon Valley investors and technology companies said on Friday that they would establish an artificial-intelligence research center to develop “digital intelligence” that will benefit humanity. … The organization, to be named OpenAI, will be established as a nonprofit, and will be based in San Francisco.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is among the industry heavyweights funding a new non-profit research company to encourage the ethical and safe development of artificial intelligence (AI). … Mr Musk announced the formation of OpenAI in a tweet leading to the company's first blog post.
Today, a group of Silicon Valley luminaries and companies announced that they have committed US$1 billion to an organization they’ve named OpenAI. This nonprofit is dedicated to advancing “digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”
We founded the OpenAI Nonprofit in late 2015 with the goal of building safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit.
On Dec. 11, 2015, OpenAI launched as a nonprofit research lab after Elon Musk and a group of prominent techies, including Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, pledged $1 billion to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit; its mission is to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
by Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and the OpenAI team December 11, 2015 OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company.
Elon Musk has been vocal about his anxiety over the future of artificial intelligence, and he's put his money where his mouth is in the past, but now he's going even bigger with the announcement of Open A.I., a non-profit artificial intelligence research company launching with $1 billion in donation from Silicon Valley luminaries and Musk as co-chair.
State of Delanare Secretary of State Diriion of Corporations Delivered 02:22 PM 12/08,2015 mED 02:22 PM 12/08/2015 SR 20151247198 - Filerumber 5902936 CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF A NON-STOCK CORPORATION OPENAI, INC. … THIRD: This Corporation shall be a nonprofit corporation organized exclusively for charitable and/or educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(c*3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue law. The specific purpose of this corporation is to provide funding for research, development and distribution of technology related to anificial intelligence.
by Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and the OpenAI team December 11, 2015 OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company.
Tax-exempt since Nov. 2016
OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company.
Openai Inc - San Francisco, CA - Tax-exempt since Nov. 2016
OpenAI was founded in 2015 in Delaware as a nonprofit, with Elon Musk and Sam Altman as co-chairs; Musk resigned in 2018.
We announced our effort to the world ten years ago today, though we didn’t officially get started(opens in a new window) for another few weeks, in early January of 2016.
OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company.
CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION, FILED THE EIGHTH DAY OF DECEMBER, A.D. 2015, AT 2:22 O'CLOCK P.M. … THIRD: This Corporation shall be a nonprofit corporation organized exclusively for charitable and/or educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(cX3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue law. The specific purpose of this corporation is to provide funding for research, development and distribution of technology related to artificial intelligence.
2015: Founding and nonprofit years
2015: Founding and nonprofit years
Debate
Two AI advocates debated this claim using the research gathered.
Argument for
OpenAI's contemporaneous Delaware certificate, filed December 8, 2015, formally incorporated it as a non-stock nonprofit whose stated purpose included funding AI research, development, and technology distribution (Sources 1 and 2). Its December 11 launch announcement called it a “non-profit artificial intelligence research company,” independently corroborated at the time by TechCrunch, The Verge, and The New York Times (Sources 20, 5, 6, and 8).
The Proponent cherry-picks from the 2015 Certificate of Incorporation (Sources 1 and 2), falsely equating a legal entity explicitly formed to provide funding for research with an operational research laboratory. Furthermore, by relying on premature media announcements (Sources 5, 6, 8, and 20), the Proponent completely ignores OpenAI's own admission that the organization did not officially begin operations until January 2016 (Source 23).
Argument against
While limited public announcements occurred in late 2015, the claim is false because OpenAI's own statements confirm the organization "didn't officially get started" until January 2016 (Source 23). Furthermore, its foundational 2015 Certificate of Incorporation explicitly defines its specific purpose as providing funding for research, not operating as a research laboratory itself (Sources 1, 2).
The Opponent conflates a later statement that operations officially began in early 2016 with the legal act of founding: OpenAI's certificate was filed on December 8, 2015, and the organization itself states it was founded in late 2015 (Sources 1–3, 11). The Opponent also draws a false dichotomy between funding AI research and being a research laboratory, despite OpenAI's contemporaneous self-description as a “non-profit artificial intelligence research company” and independent reporting identifying it as a nonprofit AI research organization (Sources 20, 5, 6, and 8).
Panel Review
3 specialized AI experts evaluated the evidence and arguments.
Reviewer 1 — The Logic Examiner
The chain of evidence is direct and multiply corroborated: the Delaware Certificate of Incorporation was filed December 8, 2015 (Sources 1, 2, 17, 25), OpenAI's own retrospective materials describe it as founded in late 2015 as a nonprofit (Sources 11, 12, 14, 22), and contemporaneous press from December 2015 uniformly described it as a nonprofit AI research organization (Sources 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24). The Opponent's reliance on Source 23's 'didn't officially get started for another few weeks' commits a hasty-generalization/equivocation fallacy, conflating the date operational activities commenced with the legal and public act of founding, and the argument that the entity's purpose was merely 'funding research' rather than 'being a research laboratory' is a false dichotomy since the same certificate and contemporaneous sources describe OpenAI as a nonprofit AI research company engaged in research itself, not merely a grant-making body; thus the claim follows logically and directly from the evidence.
Reviewer 2 — The Source Auditor
The most reliable sources—Delaware certificates of incorporation on CourtListener (Sources 1–3), IRS Form 990 filings (Source 4), and contemporaneous reporting from AP, NYT, TechCrunch, and The Verge (Sources 5–8)—establish that OpenAI, Inc. was incorporated on December 8, 2015 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose purpose was AI research, development, and distribution, and was publicly launched days later as a nonprofit AI research organization. Trustworthy primary and secondary evidence therefore confirms the claim, with only minor semantic quibbles about exact operational start or “laboratory” wording that do not undermine the core facts.
Reviewer 3 — The Precision Analyst
OpenAI's December 8, 2015 incorporation certificate establishes that it was formed as a nonprofit, while contemporaneous OpenAI and news descriptions identify it as an artificial-intelligence research company, venture, center, or laboratory (Sources 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 20). The later statement that operations officially began in early 2016 does not negate the accurately stated 2015 founding date, so the claim is true as worded.
Panel summary
Source analysis shows strong agreement among primary corporate records, tax filings, OpenAI's contemporaneous announcement, and independent reporting. These sources establish that OpenAI, Inc. was incorporated in December 2015 as a nonprofit organization devoted to artificial-intelligence research. The reasoning properly distinguishes legal and public founding in 2015 from the reported start of some operations in early 2016. Precision concerns are immaterial: contemporary sources commonly characterized OpenAI as a research laboratory, center, or organization, all consistent with the claim's practical meaning. Later changes to OpenAI's organizational structure do not alter its original status.