Who Owns ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is owned by OpenAI — it is a product, not a company. Since a restructuring completed in October 2025, the business is OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation controlled by the OpenAI Foundation, a nonprofit. Microsoft is the largest external shareholder at roughly 27%, but it does not control OpenAI: the Foundation holds control through governance rights rather than through the size of its stake. Ownership verified 5 September 2026.

Who owns the ChatGPT brand?

ChatGPT is a service operated by OpenAI, launched in November 2022. There is no ChatGPT company, and the several UK companies with “ChatGPT” in their names are unconnected to OpenAI — Companies House shows CHATGPT OPENAI AI ROBOT LTD (14771302), now dissolved, which was never part of the group. Name matching is unusually unreliable for this brand.

OpenAI does have a UK company, OPENAI UK LTD (14367667), incorporated 21 September 2022. Others that look related are not: OPENAITECH LTD (14178632) is a separate business with a similar name.

Parent company and ultimate owner

The structure changed materially in October 2025. The for-profit arm became OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation, controlled by the OpenAI Foundation, the nonprofit that has governed OpenAI since its founding.

The reported split at that recapitalisation:

• OpenAI Foundation — about 26% of the equity, and full control: its board appoints the board of the for-profit
• Microsoft — about 27% on an as-converted basis, the largest external holder
• Employees and other investors — the remaining share, roughly 47%

This is the case the ownership question handles badly. Microsoft holds a larger economic stake than the Foundation and does not control the company. The Foundation holds less equity and does control it. Saying “Microsoft owns the largest share of OpenAI” is accurate; saying “Microsoft owns OpenAI” is not.

A further funding round in early 2026, reported at around $110 billion with backing including SoftBank and Nvidia, diluted existing holders — so percentages quoted from the October 2025 recapitalisation are already out of date as economic figures, even though the control arrangement is unchanged.

Brand owner vs operating company

The product is ChatGPT. The operating company is OpenAI Group PBC. The controlling body is the OpenAI Foundation. The largest external shareholder is Microsoft. A public benefit corporation is also not an ordinary company: it is required to weigh a stated public purpose alongside shareholder returns, which is the point of the structure.

OPENAI UK LTD is the UK subsidiary and is not the owner of anything material — it is a local operating entity.

When the ownership changed

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit, added a capped-profit arm in 2019, and took its first major Microsoft investment the same year. The decisive change was the October 2025 recapitalisation that created OpenAI Group PBC under the OpenAI Foundation and converted Microsoft’s position into a conventional equity stake. Microsoft’s commercial arrangement was further loosened in April 2026.

Related brands in the same group

OpenAI also operates the API used by other companies’ products, the Sora video model and the DALL·E image models. A great many consumer apps are built on OpenAI’s API without any ownership relationship at all — using the technology is not evidence of common ownership, and that inference is a frequent error with AI products.

Sources and verification

The UK company details come from the Companies House register. It is worth being explicit about what that register yields here: OPENAI UK LTD files a statement that it has no registrable person or relevant legal entity with significant control, notified 21 September 2022. That is a legitimate filing, and it means Companies House provides no evidence at all about who owns OpenAI. The UK register is simply not a source for this question.

The ownership figures above are therefore reported from the October 2025 restructuring and subsequent funding rounds, not verified against a public register — OpenAI Group PBC is a private US company and no equivalent public filing exists. They should be read as reported positions with a date attached, and they move with each round.