The biggest AI companies you should know

AI continues to be the hottest trend in tech, and it doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta (META), and Amazon (AMZN) continue to debut new AI-powered software capabilities while leaders from other AI firms split off to form their own startups.

But the furious pace of change also makes it difficult to keep track of the various players in the AI space. With that in mind, we’re breaking down what you need to know about the biggest names in AI and what they do.

From OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) to Perplexity (PEAI.PVT), these are the AI companies you should be following.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI helped put generative AI technology on the map. The company’s ChatGPT bot, released in late 2022, quickly became one of the most downloaded apps in the world. Since then, the company has launched its own search engine, 4o image generator, a video generator, and a file uploader that allows you to ask the bot to summarize the content of your documents, as well as access to specialized first- and third-party GPT bots.

Microsoft uses OpenAI’s various large language models (LLM) in its Copilot and other services. Apple (AAPL) also offers access to ChatGPT as part of its Apple Intelligence and Visual Intelligence services.

But there’s drama behind the scenes. OpenAI is working to restructure its business into a public benefit corporation overseen by its nonprofit arm, which will allow it to raise more capital. To do that, it needs Microsoft’s sign-off, but the two sides are at loggerheads over the details of the plan and what it means for each company.

In the meantime, both OpenAI and Microsoft are reportedly working on products that will compete with each other’s existing offerings. Microsoft offers its own AI models, and OpenAI is developing a productivity service, according to The Information.

Still, the pairing has been lucrative for both tech firms. During its most recent quarterly earnings call, Microsoft said AI revenue was above expectations and contributed 16 percentage points of growth for the company’s Azure cloud business. OpenAI, meanwhile, saw its annualized revenue run rate balloon to $10 billion as of June, according to Reuters. That’s up from $5.5 billion in Dec. 2024.

OpenAI offers a limited free version of its ChatGPT bot, as well as ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 per month, and enterprise versions of the app.

Google’s Gemini offers search functionality using the company’s Gemini 2.5 family of AI models. You can choose between using Gemini Flash for quick searches or Gemini Pro, which is meant for deep research and coding.

Gemini doesn’t just power Google’s Gemini app. It’s pervasive across Google’s litany of services. Checking your email or prepping an outline in Docs, Gemini is there. Get an AI Overviews result when using standard Google Search? That’s Gemini too. Google Maps? That also takes advantage of Gemini. Chrome, YouTube, Google Flights, Google Hotels — you name it, it’s using Gemini.

But Google’s Gemini, previously known as Bard, got off to a rough start. When Google debuted its Gemini-powered AI Overviews in May 2024, it began offering up wild statements like recommending users put glue on their pizza to help make the cheese stick.

But during its I/O developer conference in May, Google showed off a number of impressive new developments for Gemini, including its updated video-generation software Veo 3 and Gemini running on prototype smart glasses.

A limited version of Gemini is available to use for free. A paid tier that costs $19.99 per month gives you access to advanced AI models and integration with Google’s productivity suite. A $249 subscription lets you use Google’s most advanced Gemini models and 30TB of storage via Google Drive, Photos, and Gmail.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has gone through a number of transformations over the years, from desktops to mobile to short-form video to an ill-advised detour into the metaverse. Now the company is leaning heavily into AI with the goal of dominating the space so it doesn’t have to rely on technologies from rivals like Apple and Google, like it did during the smartphone wars.

It helps that Meta has a massive $70 billion in cash and marketable securities on hand that it can deploy at a moment’s notice and data from billions of users to train its models.

Unlike most competitors, Meta is offering its Llama family of AI models as open-weights software, which means companies and researchers can adjust the models as they see fit, though they don’t get access to the original training data. More people developing apps and tools that use Llama means Meta effectively gets to see how its software can evolve without having to do extra work.

But Llama 4 Behemoth, the company’s massive LLM, has been delayed by months, according to the Wall Street Journal. To seemingly offset similar delays moving forward, Meta is scooping up AI talent left and right. The company invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI and hired its CEO, Alexandr Wang. Meta also grabbed Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.

Meta’s AI, like Google’s, runs across its various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, as well as its smart glasses.

Founded in 2021 by siblings and ex-OpenAI researchers Dario and Daniela Amodei, Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) is an AI company focused on safety and trust. The duo split off from OpenAI over disagreements related to AI safety and the company’s general direction.

Like OpenAI, Anthropic has accumulated some deep-pocketed backers, including Amazon and Google, which have already poured billions into the company.

The company’s Claude models are available across various cloud services. Its Anthropic chat interface offers a host of capabilities, including web searches, coding, as well as writing and drafting documents. Anthropic also allows users to build what it calls artifacts, which are documents, games, lists, and other bite-sized pieces of content you can share online.

In June, a federal judge sided with Anthropic in a case in which the company was accused of breaking copyright law by training its models on copyrighted books. But Anthropic allegedly downloaded pirated versions of some books and will now face trial over the charge.

Elon Musk’s xAI, a separate company from X Corp, which owns X (formerly Twitter), offers its own Grok chatbot and Grok AI models. Users can access Grok through a website, app, and X. Like other AI services, it allows users to search for information via the web, generate text and images, and write code. The company trains Grok on its Colossus supercomputer, which xAI said will eventually include 1 million GPUs.

According to Musk, Grok was meant to have an edgy flair, though like other chatbots, it has been caught spreading misinformation.

Musk previously co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman but left the company after disagreements over its future and leadership positions. In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman over the AI company’s effort to restructure itself as a for-profit organization.

Musk says OpenAI has abandoned its original mission statement to build AI to benefit humanity and instead is working to enrich itself and Microsoft.

Perplexity takes a real-time web search approach to AI chatbots, serving as a true threat to the likes of Google and its own search engine.

Headed by CEO Aravind Srinivas, who previously worked as a research scientist at OpenAI, Perplexity allows users to choose from a number of different AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT-4.1, Anthropic’s Claude 4.0 Sonnet, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, xAI’s Grok 3, and the company’s own Sonoar.

Perplexity also provides users with Discover pages for topics like finance, sports, and more, with stories curated by both the Perplexity team and outside contractors.

As with other AI companies, Perplexity has been criticized by media organizations for allegedly using their content without permission. Dow Jones is suing the company over the practice.

Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley.

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