ChatGPT
OpenAI's chatbot, launched November 30, 2022: built with technology trained on a 10,000-NVIDIA-GPU supercomputer, it hit 1 million users in five days, 100 million by January 2023 — and turned its chipmaker into the world's first $4 trillion company.
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- Location
- San Francisco, California
- Country
- United States
- What it is
- A generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, built on the GPT ("Generative Pre-trained Transformer") family of large language models
- Launched
- "November 30, 2022, built on the GPT-3.5 architecture and trained with reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) — released as a conversational interface rather than an API"
- Early growth
- Surpassed 1 million users within five days, then the fastest-growing consumer platform in history; an estimated 100 million monthly active users by January 2023
- Hardware origin
- OpenAI trained the technology behind ChatGPT using a supercomputer powered by 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs
- Economic shockwave
- When word spread that ChatGPT was built on NVIDIA hardware, rivals scrambled for GPUs and investors piled into the shares; NVIDIA became the world's first $4 trillion company in July 2025
- Model lineage
- GPT-1 (2018), GPT-2 (2019) and GPT-3 (2020) preceded it; GPT-4 launched in 2023 with stronger reasoning, followed by multimodal expansion into browsing, image generation and specialized versions
- Italy ban
- Italy's data protection authority temporarily blocked ChatGPT in March 2023 over privacy concerns; the ban was lifted on April 28, 2023, after OpenAI added privacy notices, an opt-out form and age verification
- Media entanglement
- Under a three-year deal from January 2025, OpenAI funds 13 Axios Local newsletters and trains its models on Axios coverage; as of February 2026, U.S. ChatGPT users were writing a million prompts a week seeking local news
Overview
ChatGPT is the product that turned its chip supplier into the world’s first $4 trillion company. OpenAI trained the technology behind the chatbot using a supercomputer powered by 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs — and when word spread, rivals scrambled for GPU access while investors piled into NVIDIA’s shares (Britannica). NVIDIA crossed the $4 trillion market-capitalization milestone in July 2025, a valuation driven, in Britannica’s words, by soaring demand for its AI chips “and its central role in powering large language models and data centers worldwide” (Britannica). By September 2025, the two companies formalized the relationship, announcing a strategic partnership to build at least 10 gigawatts of computing capacity using NVIDIA hardware, with up to $100 billion in hardware and data-center capacity as phases completed (Britannica).
The chatbot itself arrived on November 30, 2022 — a generative AI system built on the GPT-3.5 architecture and fine-tuned with reinforcement learning from human feedback, offered not as a developer API but as a conversational interface anyone could talk to (Firstpost). Within five days it had passed 1 million users, at the time the fastest growth any consumer platform had recorded; by January 2023 it was estimated at 100 million monthly active users (Firstpost).
From API demos to a product anyone could use
Before ChatGPT, OpenAI had built the earlier GPT models — GPT-1 in 2018, GPT-2 in 2019, GPT-3 in 2020 — but released them primarily through APIs, research collaborations and controlled demonstrations (Firstpost). ChatGPT was the decisive shift: the RLHF training made responses more aligned with user intent, more conversational and better at following instructions, so that for the first time users needed no programming knowledge to talk to a frontier AI system (Firstpost). The lineage continued with GPT-4 in 2023, offering more advanced reasoning and better reliability, and later multimodal expansions into browsing, image generation and specialized professional versions (Firstpost).
Growth at that scale collided with regulators almost immediately. In March 2023, Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, ordered OpenAI to temporarily stop processing Italian users’ personal information while it investigated a possible data breach, questioning whether there was a legal basis for collecting the massive datasets used to train the chatbot’s algorithms (Associated Press). OpenAI met the regulator’s conditions ahead of an April 30 deadline — publishing privacy notices, creating an EU opt-out form for training data, and adding age verification — and ChatGPT was reinstated in Italy on April 28, 2023 (Associated Press). The episode was a preview of the regulatory scrutiny that generative AI would face worldwide.
A chatbot entangled with the news business
ChatGPT’s relationship with the media has become a story in its own right. In January 2025, Axios and OpenAI debuted a three-year deal under which OpenAI bankrolls the startup of thirteen Axios Local newsletters and gives Axios staff enterprise tool credits, while Axios lets OpenAI train its models on its published coverage (Columbia Journalism Review). Axios CEO Jim VandeHei framed it as a test of whether lean local newsrooms armed with AI could be economically viable; critics called it a devil’s bargain (Columbia Journalism Review).
The tension is direct. As of February 2026, ChatGPT users in the United States were writing a million prompts per week seeking out local news — the very journalism dwindling local newsrooms struggle to produce (Columbia Journalism Review). Meanwhile Axios has continued covering damning allegations against OpenAI, including ChatGPT’s alleged role in teen suicides and “each beat of OpenAI’s ugly court battle with Elon Musk” (Columbia Journalism Review).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not state a current user count — the 1-million and 100-million figures describe the launch period only. It does not identify any specific 2026 model version, because circulating claims about “GPT-5.5” and “GPT-6” variants could not be verified in a tier1 or tier2 source read in full. The “fastest-growing consumer platform in history” description reflects the record as it stood in December 2022, not a permanent title. The $4 trillion valuation and the NVIDIA–OpenAI partnership figures are as reported by Britannica in 2026 and describe that reporting date, not a guarantee of current market value.
Timeline
- 2022
- OpenAI releases ChatGPT on November 30; it passes 1 million users within five days. Britannica later records that the technology behind it was trained on a supercomputer powered by 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs.
- 2023
- ChatGPT reaches an estimated 100 million monthly active users in January; GPT-4 launches; Italy's Garante blocks the chatbot in March and reinstates it on April 28 after OpenAI meets the regulator's conditions.
- 2025
- The Axios–OpenAI deal debuts in January, funding 13 local newsletters; NVIDIA becomes the first $4 trillion company in July; NVIDIA and OpenAI announce a strategic partnership in September with up to $100 billion in hardware and data-center capacity.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- No current user count is asserted; the growth figures describe the launch period only.
- Specific 2026 model versions are not stated — circulating claims about "GPT-5.5"/"GPT-6" variants could not be verified in a tier1/tier2 source read in full.
- The claim that ChatGPT was the "fastest-growing consumer platform in history" reflects the record at the time (five days to 1 million users), not a permanent title.
Sources
4 sources (3 tier 1, 1 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
This profile is built from four sources read in full: Britannica's NVIDIA page for the hardware origin and the market-shock story; Firstpost's launch retrospective for the dates, growth figures and model lineage; the Associated Press's reporting on Italy's ban and its lifting (via TechXplore); and the Columbia Journalism Review's feature on the Axios–OpenAI deal. It leads with the 10,000-GPU hardware story and the $4 trillion consequence — the verified-but-unshared angle that no page-one result covers.
- Supports: OpenAI trained the technology behind ChatGPT using a supercomputer powered by 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs; when word spread, rivals sought GPU access and investors clamored for NVIDIA shares; July 2025: first company to reach $4 trillion market cap; September 2025: NVIDIA–OpenAI strategic partnership for at least 10 gigawatts of computing capacity, up to $100 billion in hardware and data-center capacity; Blackwell (2024) and Rubin (early 2026) architectures Open original source
- Supports: Garante ordered OpenAI to temporarily stop processing Italian users' personal information in March 2023 over privacy concerns, including a possible data breach; ban lifted Friday April 28, 2023 after OpenAI met conditions by the April 30 deadline; measures included privacy notices, an EU opt-out form and age-verification tool Open original source
- Supports: Three-year Axios–OpenAI deal: OpenAI bankrolls 13 Axios Local newsletters and trains models on Axios coverage, debuted January 2025; ChatGPT's public debut came three months after Axios's August 2022 sale to Cox Enterprises; as of February 2026, U.S. ChatGPT users wrote a million prompts per week seeking local news; Axios has covered ChatGPT's alleged role in teen suicides and OpenAI's court battle with Elon Musk Open original source
- Supports: November 30, 2022 release; built on GPT-3.5 architecture with RLHF; conversational interface instead of API; 1 million users within five days — fastest-growing consumer platform at the time; 100 million monthly active users by January 2023; GPT-1 (2018), GPT-2 (2019), GPT-3 (2020); GPT-4 launched 2023 with more advanced reasoning Open original source
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