The News
OpenAI will remain under the control of its nonprofit arm, the startup announced Monday, marking a reversal for the ChatGPT-maker following months of intense scrutiny over its plan to transform into a for-profit organization.
OpenAI will instead convert its for-profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation — a move that will remove limits on returns that investors can receive, but leaves the non-profit board with control of the company.
CEO Sam Altman’s effort to make the company independent of its nonprofit board, which briefly fired Altman in 2023, spooking investors, had received intense pushback, including from former OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk: The Tesla CEO sued OpenAI to try and block the move in 2024.
Many of the artificial intelligence startup’s own former employees also opposed the plan, writing in a letter alongside AI experts to two state attorneys general that it would jeopardize OpenAI’s founding mission “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”