Who Owns ChatGPT? A Stake-by-Stake Answer for 2026
ChatGPT is owned by OpenAI, the San Francisco company that built it. The business behind it is OpenAI Group PBC, a for-profit public benefit corporation, and a nonprofit called the OpenAI Foundation controls that company by choosing its entire board.
The money side is messier. No investor owns a majority, and the ownership percentages repeated across most of the web stopped being accurate in March 2026.
Key takeaways
- Microsoft owns about 25% of OpenAI on an as-converted basis, per its annual report for the year to June 30, 2026, down from about 27% at the October 2025 recapitalization.
- SoftBank holds about 13% after its final $10 billion payment on October 1, 2026, which took its total investment to $64.6 billion, Reuters reported.
- The OpenAI Foundation held 26%, worth about $130 billion, when the new structure closed on October 28, 2025. OpenAI hasn’t published an updated figure since.
- Sam Altman has no direct equity in OpenAI, according to company statements and court filings reported in May 2026.
- There’s no ChatGPT stock. OpenAI filed confidentially for an IPO in mid-2026, but Altman has ruled out a listing in 2026.
Who owns ChatGPT? It depends which kind of “own” you mean
When people ask who owns ChatGPT, they’re usually asking one of four different questions. The answers don’t line up, which is why you’ll see Microsoft, Sam Altman and “a nonprofit” all named as the owner on different sites.
| Kind of ownership | Who | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Product and brand | OpenAI, through OpenAI Group PBC and its subsidiaries | ChatGPT isn’t a company of its own. It’s one OpenAI product, sold alongside the API and Codex. |
| Voting control | The OpenAI Foundation (nonprofit) | Appoints, and can remove, every director of OpenAI Group PBC, whatever its share count. |
| Economic ownership | Shareholders: Microsoft, SoftBank, the Foundation, Amazon, Nvidia, employees and other investors | They share in the company’s value. None holds a majority or the right to name directors. |
| Management | CEO Sam Altman; Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications | They run the business and answer to the board. |
One caveat: OpenAI hasn’t published which of its subsidiaries legally holds each ChatGPT trademark or piece of code. “OpenAI Group PBC and its subsidiaries” is as precise as the public record allows.
OpenAI Foundation
Foundation 26% (Oct 2025)
SoftBank ~13% (Oct 2026)
Amazon (% undisclosed)
Nvidia (% undisclosed)
Employees and other investors
API
Codex
Who holds OpenAI’s shares in October 2026
OpenAI doesn’t publish a shareholder list. The table below pieces one together from what each holder has disclosed, with the date of every figure, because they were measured months apart.
| Holder | Stake | Status | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | About 25%, as-converted | Disclosed | Microsoft Form 10-K, as of June 30, 2026 |
| OpenAI Foundation | 26% at closing, plus a warrant for more shares if the share price rises more than tenfold over 15 years | Disclosed not updated | OpenAI, October 28, 2025 |
| SoftBank | About 13% ($64.6 billion invested in total) | Disclosed | SoftBank via Reuters, October 1, 2026 |
| Amazon | Not disclosed ($50 billion invested) | Amount only | Amazon Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 30, 2026 |
| Nvidia | Not disclosed ($30 billion committed) | Amount only | Reporting on the February 2026 round |
| Employees, early VCs and other funds | The remainder | Not disclosed | No breakdown published |
| Sam Altman | No direct stake | Reported | OpenAI statements; court filings reported May 2026 |
| US government | None | Proposal only | Financial Times, July 2, 2026: OpenAI proposed handing over 5%; no deal announced |
Amazon’s money went into OpenAI’s Series C preferred stock, which converts into common shares if OpenAI goes public, according to Amazon’s 10-Q. If that label is unfamiliar, here’s how Series C funding works.
Why the 26/27/47 split is out of date
When the recapitalization closed on October 28, 2025, OpenAI said the Foundation held 26%, Microsoft about 27% and current and former employees plus investors the other 47%. Those were real numbers on that day. Most articles still quote them as if nothing has happened since.
Something did. OpenAI closed a $122 billion round on March 31, 2026 at an $852 billion post-money valuation. That implies a pre-money value of $730 billion, so existing holders were left with 730 ÷ 852, or about 85.7% of the company, once all the new money landed.
Our estimate: the old split after the March 2026 round
- OpenAI Foundation: 26% × 0.857 ≈ 22.3%, before any extra shares from its warrant
- Microsoft: 27% × 0.857 ≈ 23.1%, before whatever it put into the round itself
- Amazon: $50B ÷ $852B ≈ 5.9%, if all of it bought in at the round price
- Nvidia: $30B ÷ $852B ≈ 3.5%, on the same assumption
These are our calculations, not company disclosures. They assume every dollar bought new shares at the round price and ignore option pools and preferred-stock terms, which OpenAI hasn’t published in full.
So why does Microsoft’s annual report say about 25%, not 23%? Timing explains most of the gap. Microsoft measured its stake on June 30, 2026, and a big slice of the round hadn’t been paid in by then.
Amazon’s 10-Q shows it paid the last $21.3 billion of its $50 billion after June 30. SoftBank’s final two $10 billion tranches were due on July 1 and October 1. That’s at least $41 billion still outstanding at the end of June, so at most about $81 billion was in.
On that basis, existing holders kept at least 90% (730 ÷ 811), which puts Microsoft at 24.3% or more. Microsoft reports on an as-converted basis, counting preferred shares as if converted to common. Rounding and Microsoft’s own undisclosed contribution to the round cover the rest, so “approximately 25%” fits.
Those tranches have now been paid. On the same arithmetic, Microsoft’s current stake is more likely around 23% to 24% than 25%. Nobody has published that figure, so treat it as our estimate until Microsoft’s next filing or OpenAI’s public S-1 settles it.
Is ChatGPT owned by Microsoft or OpenAI?
OpenAI owns ChatGPT. Microsoft is its largest outside shareholder and its most important commercial partner, which is why the two get blurred together.
Microsoft has committed $13.0 billion to OpenAI, of which $11.9 billion had been funded by June 30, 2026, according to Microsoft’s fiscal 2026 annual report. The same filing shows Microsoft booked $24.1 billion of revenue from commercial arrangements with OpenAI that year, including revenue-sharing payments.
The contracts matter as much as the shares. Under the October 2025 agreement, OpenAI committed to buy an extra $250 billion of Azure cloud services and Microsoft gave up its right of first refusal as OpenAI’s compute provider. Microsoft also said its rights to OpenAI’s models and products run through 2032.
In April 2026 the terms shifted again. CNBC reported that Microsoft’s license to OpenAI’s IP became non-exclusive and that the revenue share now runs one way only: OpenAI keeps paying Microsoft, reportedly 20% of revenue, but subject to a total cap. That arrangement is a large part of how ChatGPT makes money and who gets a cut of it.
What Microsoft doesn’t have is a vote. It gave up its non-voting board observer seat in July 2024 amid antitrust scrutiny, and under the current structure only the Foundation appoints OpenAI’s directors.
Copilot, the assistant Microsoft sells, is Microsoft’s own product built partly on OpenAI models. ChatGPT is not a Microsoft product.
Who owns 49% of OpenAI?
Nobody, today. The 49% figure dates from January 2023, when Semafor reported the terms of Microsoft’s roughly $10 billion investment: once Microsoft earned its money back, it would hold 49%, other investors another 49% and the nonprofit parent 2%.
That described a profit-sharing setup inside the old capped-profit structure, which the 2025 recapitalization replaced. Microsoft’s most recent disclosed stake is about 25%.
How OpenAI’s ownership got this tangled
The structure is the product of an unusual history: a charity that turned out to need tens of billions of dollars. These are the moments that changed who owns what.
Was Elon Musk a founder of OpenAI?
Yes. Musk co-founded OpenAI in December 2015 and was among the backers who pledged a combined $1 billion to the nonprofit. He left the board in 2018 and holds no stake in OpenAI or ChatGPT.
He later sued, arguing that the shift to a for-profit model betrayed the founding mission. On May 18, 2026, a federal jury in Oakland found his claims were filed too late after less than two hours of deliberation, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the advisory verdict, Reuters reported. Musk’s lawyers said he would appeal.
Who actually makes the decisions about ChatGPT
In most companies, control follows the money. At OpenAI it doesn’t. According to OpenAI’s own structure page, the Foundation has special voting and governance rights that let it appoint every member of OpenAI Group PBC’s board and replace any of them at any time.
In practice the two boards are almost the same people. Every Foundation director also sits on the Group board except Zico Kolter, who chairs the Safety and Security Committee and attends the Group board as a non-voting observer. Bret Taylor chairs the Foundation board, and Altman is a director of both.
Day to day, Altman runs OpenAI as CEO. Fidji Simo, hired in 2025 as CEO of Applications, leads the product and business teams that turn OpenAI’s research into products like ChatGPT, and reports to Altman.
Put those pieces together and the result is striking. On our estimates, the Foundation may now hold a slightly smaller economic stake than Microsoft, yet it still picks the whole board, while Microsoft, SoftBank and Amazon pick none of it. Compare that with who owns Waymo, where one corporate parent sits on top.
For founders raising money, OpenAI is the clearest live example that the right to appoint a board can be negotiated separately from the size of an equity stake.
Can you buy ChatGPT stock?
No. OpenAI is privately held, so there’s no ticker for ChatGPT or OpenAI, and shares change hands only in private deals.
A listing is coming, just not in 2026. In June 2026, OpenAI said it had confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the SEC and hadn’t decided on timing. In September, Altman said OpenAI would not go public in 2026, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile it’s raising again. Bloomberg reported on September 29 that OpenAI was seeking at least $30 billion at about $1.4 trillion before the new money, and on October 22 that the target had moved to $1.25 trillion in final-stage talks. As of October 28, 2026, OpenAI hadn’t announced the round as closed.
If you want indirect exposure, the listed companies with disclosed OpenAI stakes are Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) and SoftBank Group (Tokyo: 9984). For the first three, OpenAI is a small slice of a much bigger business.
SoftBank is the exception. At the March valuation, its roughly 13% would be worth about $110 billion, which makes OpenAI one of the largest assets the group owns. This is background, not investment advice.
Other questions people ask
Which AI is owned by Elon Musk?
Elon Musk’s AI is Grok, made by xAI, the company he founded in 2023. SpaceX acquired xAI in an all-stock deal completed on February 2, 2026, valuing the combined company at about $1.25 trillion, according to CNBC and Bloomberg. Musk owns no part of ChatGPT.
What country owns ChatGPT?
No country owns ChatGPT. It’s made by OpenAI, a privately held US company based in San Francisco and controlled by its US nonprofit foundation. Foreign investors hold minority stakes, the largest being Japan’s SoftBank at about 13%, but no government holds shares in OpenAI.
What changes the answer next
The structure at the top is unlikely to move soon. The percentages underneath will keep moving.
If the round in talks closes at $30 billion on a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, new investors would get about 2.3% (30 ÷ 1,280). Every existing holder would shrink by the same proportion, so a Microsoft stake of around 23% would slip by roughly half a percentage point.
The bigger reveal is the public S-1. SEC rules require a confidential draft to be made public at least 15 days before an IPO roadshow begins, and that filing will carry an audited ownership table that replaces every estimate on this page, ours included.
Until then, the short answer holds. OpenAI owns ChatGPT, and the nonprofit at the top decides who runs it, however the shares end up divided.
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