OpenAI describes its business structure as “a partnership between our original nonprofit and a new, limited-profit arm,” which has been a contributing factor to last year’s brief board coup against CEO Sam Altman and a recent lawsuit from co-founder Elon Musk. But that’s reportedly about to change alongside a massive new funding round that’s still being negotiated but could value the ChatGPT maker at more than $150 billion.
Now, technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-remove-non-profit-control-give-sam-altman-equity-sources-say-2024-09-25/”>Reuters cites anonymous sources The new plan includes, for the first time, the award of an unspecified amount of stock to Altman. Under the new structure, OpenAI would operate as a for-profit corporation, like rival artificial intelligence company Anthropic.
That business would “no longer be controlled by its nonprofit board of directors” and would become more attractive to investors since the nonprofit would retain a minority stake. However, for those concerned about OpenAI’s focus on safety versus potential profits, it may be unsettling that the company is seeking ai models capable of reasoning.
When Altman returned as CEO last November, his letter mentioned “improving our governance structure,” and that appears to be taking shape as other executives leave. OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced her departure today. Reuters Company president Greg Brockman has been on leave and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever parted ways with the company earlier this year.
