OpenAI to remain under non-profit control in change of restructuring plans
- On May 5, 2025, OpenAI announced that its nonprofit will retain control as it converts its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco and incorporated in Delaware.
- This decision follows months of pursuing a full for-profit conversion and occurred after consultations with civic leaders and Attorneys General offices in California and Delaware amid public pushback.
- CEO Sam Altman stated that transitioning the company’s legal form from its previous setup to a public benefit corporation creates a clearer organizational framework that aligns the goals of shareholders with the company’s broader social objectives.
- Altman explained that changing the for-profit part of OpenAI into a public benefit corporation creates a clearer framework suited to the organization's scale, and noted that the demand for AI tools has greatly exceeded expectations.
- This restructuring allows OpenAI to access more capital for mergers and acquisitions while ensuring the nonprofit remains the majority owner and appoints the public benefit corporation’s board.
273 Articles
273 Articles
OpenAI’s nonprofit mission fades further into the rearview
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit with a mission to build safe artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity. For a while, that structure made sense. But in 2019, the company made a discovery that changed everything: Scaling up AI models—with more data, compute, and parameters—led to predictably stronger results. The insight was formalized in a 2020 paper titled “Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models,” and it reshaped OpenAI’s tr…
OpenAI’s new for-profit plan leaves many unanswered questions
OpenAI has abandoned its controversial restructuring plan. In a dramatic reversal, the company said Monday it would no longer try to separate control of its for-profit arm from the non-profit board that currently oversees operations. "We made the decision for the nonprofit to retain control of OpenAI after hearing from civic leaders and engaging in constructive dialogue with the offices of the Attorney General of Delaware and the Attorney Genera…

OpenAI abandons plans to become a for-profit company
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI announced Monday, May 5th that his company would eventually remain a not-for-profit company. This project of change of status had fed a wide opposition bringing together ex-collaborators, academics up to billionaire Elon Musk.
OpenAI Stays A Nonprofit
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images News/Getty ImagesOpenAI, the organization known for shepherding in the artificial intelligence boom, has recently announced a significant decision to maintain its nonprofit governance structure. This move comes after a series of legal challenges and ethical considerations that questioned the alignment of its operations with its foundational mission.Founded in December 2015, OpenAI was established with the mission to …
Why is OpenAI so hellbent on changing its structure?
OpenAI has been trying to switch from a nonprofit business model to a for-profit corporation for a while now, drawing intense criticism along the way. That's no longer happening now, thanks to the latest development coming from Sam Altman & Co. But because OpenAI wants to develop AGI, and because people use so much ChatGPT AI that OpenAI can't keep up, the company is switching to a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) structure that will be under th…
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