The shining star of the artificial intelligence industry, OpenAI, recently made headlines with GPT-4o. Now, the company has been selected as the number one on CNBC’s annual Disruptor 50 list.
CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list, released every year, features 50 private companies that use groundbreaking technologies to transform industries and change the rules of the game. This year’s 2024 Disruptor 50 list prominently features artificial intelligence, with nearly two-thirds of the listed companies defining AI as “critical” for their operations. OpenAI, the shining star of the AI industry, has claimed the top spot on the list.
OpenAI, at the Top of the List for the Second Consecutive Time The CNBC Disruptor 50 list clearly illustrates how artificial intelligence is disrupting markets. Thirteen of the companies listed in the top 10 this year describe themselves as “productive AI” companies. These companies collectively raised $5.5 billion from investors last year. The entire list, valued at $436 billion, has raised a total of $70 billion.
Moreover, this year’s Disruptor 50 list marks a first. No company has ever held the number one spot two years in a row. Unsurprisingly, that company is none other than OpenAI. CNBC emphasizes that OpenAI has a more destructive impact than all other companies. The company gained significant success with ChatGPT, followed by groundbreaking AI projects such as GPT-4, Dall-E3, and Sora. Most recently, OpenAI signaled continuous innovation by releasing a brand-new and more advanced model named GPT-4o. Additionally, OpenAI, valued at $29 billion when it was selected as number one in 2023, has now reached a valuation of $80 billion.
AI is Impacting Every Sector The AI revolution, reflecting the internet, mobile, and cloud revolutions, has some distinct features. Existing AI companies like Databricks (ranked 5th), Anthropic (7th), Scale AI (12th), Cohere (30th), AlphaSense (40th), and Glean (43rd) indicate rapid changes, along with the annual progress of large language models and their dependence on costly chips and infrastructure.
While previous tech giants deemed having a garage enough for their organizations, AI-focused companies require hundreds of thousands of GPUs and data centers. This leads them to partnerships with various giants, from Microsoft and Nvidia to Oracle, Salesforce, Amazon, and Alphabet. These partnerships enable more comprehensive and disruptive transitions. We already see AI’s effectiveness in corporate technology, fintech, healthcare, biotechnology, aviation, and defense industries.
CNBC 2024 Disruptor 50 List
- OpenAI
- Anduril Industries
- Stripe
- Brex
- Databricks
- Canva
- Anthropic
- ElevateBio
- Wiz
- Exotec
- Octopus Energy
- Scale AI
- Notion
- Flutterwave
- Relativity Space
- Monzo
- Transcarent
- Arctic Wolf
- Einride
- Thrive Market
- Zipline
- Chime
- GrubMarket
- Carbon Robotics
- Generate:Biomedicines
- Figma
- Kapital
- Deel
- Alto Pharmacy
- Cohere
- Zum
- Ramp
- Dedrone
- Lead Bank
- Phononic
- Solugen
- Tala
- Navan
- Beewise
- AlphaSense
- Trust & Will
- Gecko Robotics
- Glean
- Discord
- Spring Health
- Lineage
- Abnormal Security
- Watershed
- Maven Clinic
- Cityblock”
