OpenAI announces changes to its corporate structure

The OpenAI Board of Directors is evaluating profound changes in its corporate structure. Although the company argues that the changes are intended to “better support the mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity”As detailed in their blog, the reality is more pecuniary and has to do with the multimillion-dollar investments it is receiving.

Specifically, the company will transform in 2025 into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), a type of company under US law that exists explicitly to generate profits y while benefiting society somehow. On the one hand, OpenAI will be a for-profit company and will be able to obtain more capital to develop its AI services and on the other, “maintain a social mission and operate sustainably”stated in the statement.

Structural changes at OpenAI

It should be noted that OpenAI, one of the most advanced companies on the planet in the development, research and deployment of artificial intelligence applications and models, was created in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and other AI experts, as a non-profit organization. Already in 2019, its structure changed to a hybrid format that allowed it to accommodate the multimillion-dollar investment of large technology companies, such as Microsoft, which is estimated to have invested figures close to 14 billion dollars.

Last year, the board of directors – until now majority independent and without equity participation – unsuccessfully tried to fire the company’s CEO and one of the founders, Sam Altman, spreading fear in investors like Microsoft. Since then and as we already mentioned, Altman has been working on structural changes that are coming soon.

Basically, the Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) will direct and control the operations and business of OpenAIbut a non-profit division will be maintained with its own management team that will have shares in the company and carry out “charitable initiatives in sectors such as health, education and science.”

The idea, they explain, is to balance shareholder interests and public benefit when making decisions, as well as raise the necessary capital to expand their linguistic models. Say that other large AI research organizations and OpenAI rivals, such as Anthropic and xAI, also operate as PBC. We will see what happens, because one of the founders, Elon Muskfiled a motion in federal court to prevent it from becoming a for-profit company.