1. OpenAI

Founders: Sam Altman (CEO), Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, John Schulman, Elon Musk
Launched: 2015
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $11.3 billion (PitchBook)
Valuation: $86 billion (PitchBook)
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, generative AI, machine learning
Industry: Enterprise technology
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 1 (No. 1 in 2023)

OpenAI is notable for many reasons, and this year, one of them is for becoming the first startup to ever be No. 1 on the Disruptor 50 list two years in a row.

OpenAI, whose most recently reported valuation in a secondary sale topped $80 billion – up from $29 billion when it topped the 2023 Disruptor 50 list – has been adding new products and entering new markets. 

Its GPT Store — the gen AI version of the App Store allowing customization of GPT and chatbots — and multiple business tiers with subscription models debuted in January. It has pushed into the corporate enterprise market with partner and financial backer Microsoft. In addition to ChatGPT, the Copilot AI work suite underpinned by large language models has signed up hundreds of thousands of users in a matter of months, the company has told the press. 

The enterprise products are expected to be deployed in industries from Wall Street to health care and energy, across call centers, research and development, marketing and finance. OpenAI executives have been pushing hard for greater adoption, out on something akin to a "roadshow" among Fortune 500 companies last month, according to a Reuters report, where its top executives pointed to the fact that its core chatbot was already being used inside more than 90% of the largest corporations.

It is also expanding globally, launching its first Asia office in Tokyo last month, while breaking into the education market, with its first university deal underway in February. Arizona State University now has full access to ChatGPT Enterprise for coursework, tutoring, research and more.

Over the past year, OpenAI also has launched audio and video generative AI products that demonstrate how quickly large language models are learning to do the creative acts that have been distinctly human. With the video and audio AI, Sora and Voice Engine, OpenAI is moving slowly, with the risk of deepfakes set against the mind-blowing capabilities that can transform everything from Hollywood to music and politics. 

But it's also in a race against the largest tech firms in the world, including Amazon, Alphabet and Meta, who are also investing billions in their own generative AI or backing startups like fellow 2024 Disruptors including Anthropic and Cohere. This month, Amazon-backed Anthropic launched its first-ever enterprise offering and a free iPhone app.

On Monday, OpenAI launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface. In a livestream event, chief technology officer Mira Murati said it has improved capabilities in text, video and audio. "This is the first time that we are really making a huge step forward when it comes to the ease of use," Murati said. GPT-4o (the "o" stands for omni) can handle 50 different languages with improved speed and quality, and it will be available to developers so they can build apps off the OpenAI API. Murati said it's twice as fast as, and half the cost of, GPT-4 Turbo.

It's not just competition, but controversies that will continue. The company was sued by Elon Musk in March, with the co-founder of OpenAI saying it had abandoned its mission on behalf of humanity when it was originally created as a nonprofit. And the lawsuits from companies and industries threatened by its intelligence are piling up, with multiple suits from newspaper publishers including The New York Times, while other media players decide that the only way to go is to play along: OpenAI has already struck deals with Axel Springer, the German media conglomerate that owns Business Insider, IAC's publisher Meredith, parent of Food and Wine and People magazine, and the Financial Times, and has also reportedly held talks with CNN, Fox Corp. and Time Inc. to license their work.

In one of its most ambitious aims, OpenAI has been reported to be considering investments in chip manufacturing, the infrastructure underpinning all AI development. In an X post earlier this year, while making no mention of reports that he was seeking to raise "trillions" for chip making, Altman did say, "the world needs more AI infrastructure fab capacity, energy, datacenters, etc. — than people are currently planning to build. … building massive-scale AI infrastructure, and a resilient supply chain, is crucial to economic competitiveness."

The immense energy usage of AI is another major ambition Altman is chasing, with a nuclear power company he is chairman of going public last week.

All of this the back-to-back No. 1 Disruptor has accomplished after the boardroom drama of last November which saw CEO Sam Altman ousted, and then quickly reinstated. That now seems like a distant memory, and the generative AI juggernaut is back on the rapid advance. Its valuation keeps climbing, and it's arguably come through the boardroom chaos with a better governance structure, as well as more control over the ship from its biggest funder Microsoft. In March, Altman rejoined the company's board, along with several other new appointments. On Tuesday, the company announced its chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever, was leaving.