With Apple on board, OpenAI’s next act could be its toughest yet

OpenAI stormed onto the scene with ChatGPT and upended the tech world in less than two years. But over the next few months, the artificial intelligence darling will face some of its biggest tests yet.

A highly anticipated partnership with Apple will supercharge its reach, putting it in front of millions of users who may have never interacted with generative AI before. A massive valuation that is growing at breakneck pace has set the stakes higher than ever, especially with interest from investors including Apple and Nvidia.

A reorganization of its hybrid nonprofit and for-profit entities has drawn criticism for abandoning the startup’s roots of building AI to benefit humanity. After just releasing a preview of its newest AI model, codenamed Project Strawberry but officially launching as OpenAI o1, the next breakthrough and GPT-5 are still on the line.

It is all a tall ask for a company that has had a bumpy ride to the top. OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO Sam Altman is divisive, surviving a coup, scrutiny around conflicts of interests, doubts around his motivations and now an exodus of top talent from the company.

Can he lead OpenAI into the big leagues? Watch this video to learn more.