Three years ago, OpenAI quietly introduced “a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way.” Understatement of the decade.
What followed was one of the fastest, most consequential shifts in tech and business since the smartphone. ChatGPT didn’t just go viral, it rewired workflows, reshaped industries, and kicked off a generative-AI race that’s still accelerating. It remains Apple’s #1 free app, and its fingerprints are everywhere: from corporate roadmaps to political debates to your Instagram Explore page.
Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI, argues OpenAI has “already grown more powerful than pretty much any nation-state.” A dramatic line, but not an exaggeration when you consider how many parts of modern life now depend on, or are disrupted by, generative AI.
Others see something broader happening. In The Atlantic, Charlie Warzel describes our current moment as “the world ChatGPT built,” defined by a kind of ambient uncertainty. Students are told the jobs they’re preparing for may not exist in a few years. Workers are warned that their well-practiced skills might not matter. And tech’s biggest believers are waiting too, convinced AI is transformative, yet aware that no one knows where the next breakthrough will land.
But for all the existential questions, the money has told a very clear story.
AI Didn’t Just Transform Tech, It Tilted the Entire Stock Market
Bloomberg recently looked at what ChatGPT has done to public markets. The biggest winner? Nvidia, whose stock has surged 979% since the chatbot’s debut. But it didn’t stop there. The entire upper tier of the S&P 500 now reads like an AI parts list: Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Broadcom.
Together, those seven companies now make up 35% of the index’s total weighting, up from ~20% three years ago. Almost half of the market’s growth since 2022 can be traced back to the AI wave.
Even AI insiders admit this level of acceleration may not be sustainable.
“Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money in AI,” Sam Altman said earlier this year. Bret Taylor, CEO of Sierra and OpenAI board chair, went further: yes, we’re in a bubble, but one with the long-term upside of the dot-com boom. Some companies will vanish. But the underlying technology will reshape the economy.
Three Years In, One Thing Is Clear: We’re Not Done
ChatGPT is now three years old, ancient, by AI standards, yet even its biggest champions say the technology is still in its early chapters. The pace hasn’t slowed; if anything, the stakes have risen. Companies, governments, investors, and entire industries are reorganizing around what comes next. Because generative AI, like the people building it, is never in its final form.
And the next three years might be even stranger than the first.
For now, enjoy this birthday cake that was generated by chatGPT… of course.
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