OpenAI Forced to Abandon Plans to Become For-Profit

Money Matters OpenAI may be raking in the investor dough, but thanks in part to erstwhile cofounder Elon Musk, the company won’t be going entirely for-profit anytime soon. In a blog post this week, the Sam Altman-run company announced that it would remain under the control of its original non-profit governing board as it shifts its planned restructuring efforts of its for-profit arm. “Our for-profit LLC, which has been under the nonprofit since 2019, will transition to a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC),” the post reads, which is a “purpose-driven company structure that has to consider the interests of both shareholders and the mission.” Though Musk was not named, that allusion to “the mission” — the building of artificial general intelligence (AGI) that “benefits all of humanity” — hearkens back to the billionaire’s lawsuit alleging that OpenAI strayed from said purpose when initially launching its for-profit arm in 2019 upon his exit. OpenAI claims in its post that it came to the decision to remain under the control of the non-profit board — the same one that fired Altman in late November 2023, only to reinstate him a few days later — “after hearing from civic leaders and engaging in constructive dialogue with the offices of the Attorney General of Delaware and the Attorney General of California.” Mission Impossible Late last December, amid Musk’s ongoing suit that was initially filed in March 2024, the company announced its plans to restructure into a PBC that would help it “raise more capital than…OpenAI Forced to Abandon Plans to Become For-Profit

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