What you need to know
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly considering turning OpenAI into a regular for-profit corporation.
- OpenAI and Sam Altman were recently placed under fire by billionaire Elon Musk after he filed a lawsuit for a stark betrayal of the startup’s founding mission.
- Elon Musk dropped the suit without prejudice.
OpenAI could potentially be on the verge of a major restructure. In 2019, the ChatGPT maker shifted from a nonprofit to a ‘capped-profit’ company to attract capital.
As it happens, the company might undergo some significant changes. According to The Information, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly told key stakeholders the company might restructure into a for-profit corporation.
While transitioning to a capped-profit company, OpenAI indicated:
“We want to increase our ability to raise capital while still serving our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure we know of strikes the right balance. Our solution is to create OpenAI LP as a hybrid of a for-profit and nonprofit—which we are calling a ‘capped-profit’ company.”
Musk backs off as OpenAI goes hard on its for-profit arm
As you may know, OpenAI’s founding mission was/still is to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.” However, concerned parties have openly expressed that the ChatGPT maker has seemingly veered off this mission. Elon Musk (who also helped co-found the startup) has been vocal about these changes.
Musk filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI for a stark betrayal of the company’s founding mission. The billionaire further stated that OpenAI has seemingly turned to a closed-source de facto subsidiary for Microsoft. Perhaps his observations are centered on Microsoft and OpenAI’s complicated partnership, especially after the multi-billion dollar investment.
Interestingly, Elon Musk dropped the case against OpenAI and its CEO without prejudice. This means that Musk can relaunch the suit against OpenAI in the future.
