OpenAI wants to shed its non-profit status
Observers already expected it, but now it's getting clearer: Reports say OpenAI wants to change its non-profit structure and become more business-oriented.
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According to reports in the US business press, OpenAI is planning to largely leave its previous non-profit status behind. As part of the restructuring, company boss Sam Altman could receive a seven percent stake in the AI company, Bloomberg wrote, citing informed persons. Altman does not yet have a stake in OpenAI. According to Reuters, OpenAI is currently valued at around 150 billion US dollars.
OpenAI Inc. was founded in 2015 and is a non-profit organization. It was originally intended to develop AI on an open source basis and oversees the company's research and direction. It is overseen by OpenAI Global LLC, a for-profit subsidiary through which investments are raised. It was founded in 2019; the largest financial backer to date is Microsoft. According to media reports, OpenAI is currently trying to obtain a cash injection of up to 6.5 billion dollars from investors.
Minority stake for non-profit arm
For the financial backers, the current overarching structure means that they can only receive a certain return. The surplus automatically goes to the charitable organization. Mozilla, for example, has a similar structure. The new structure would no longer limit how much donors can earn from their investment, wrote the Wall Street Journal.
According to Reuters, however, the non-profit part of OpenAI would not be dissolved, but would remain and retain a minority stake in the commercial arm. "The non-profit organization is at the heart of our mission and will continue to exist," an OpenAI spokeswoman commented on the reports. Control over the future direction of OpenAI will probably no longer lie with the non-profit organization.
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According to reports, OpenAI CEO Altman had already spoken several times at staff meetings about OpenAI changing its structure. He has held out the prospect of a changeover in the coming year.
Many observers have been expecting a change since Altman was forced out of the company at short notice last fall. Even then, it was said to be about the direction of OpenAI and the security of developments. Former employees have also publicly complained that the company is solely concerned with profit. There have also been numerous prominent departures from OpenAI, most recently the head of technology Mira Murati.
(axk)
