OpenAI has decided that its nonprofit division will retain control over its for-profit org, after the company initially announced that it planned to convert to a for-profit organization.
According to the company, OpenAI’s business wing, which has been under the nonprofit since 2019, will transaction to a public benefit corporation (PBC). The nonprofit will control and also be a large shareholder of the PBC.
“OpenAI was founded as a non-profit, and is today overseen and controlled by that nonprofit,” OpenAI Board Chairman Bret Taylor wrote in a statement on the company’s blog. “Going forward, it will continue to be overseen and controlled by that nonprofit.”
OpenAI says that it made the decision “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.”
“We thank both offices and we look forward to continuing these important conversations to make sure OpenAI can continue to effectively pursue its mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity,” Taylor continued.
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, but it converted to a “capped-profit” in 2019, and was trying to restructure once more into a for-profit. When it transitioned to a capped-profit, OpenAI retained its nonprofit wing, which currently has a controlling stake in the organization’s corporate arm.
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