OpenAI wants to build the next era of the web, and it’s shelling out billions to do it

Open AI CEO Sam Altman prepares for a US Senate Commerce Committee hearing on AI on Capitol Hill on May 8, 2025. Altman is turning the company into more than a basic chatbot maker. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images New York —

OpenAI was an artificial intelligence research lab little known outside of Silicon Valley before ChatGPT debuted in November 2022.

Three years later, OpenAI has become synonymous with the AI boom, making it the envy of its tech peers and thrusting CEO Sam Altman into President Donald Trump’s orbit. ChatGPT writes apps, plans trips and browses the web on users’ behalf. And OpenAI is making inroads into shopping, entertainment, education and government services — laying out plans to become more like a platform than a basic app in its developer conference on M