Source: Securities Times.

Author: Zhou Chunmei

Today, according to foreign media reports, OpenAI plans to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation. This for-profit benefit corporation will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board of directors, making the company more attractive to investors. OpenAI's non-profit organization will continue to exist, but will only hold a minority stake in the for-profit company.

Will operate in the form of a for-profit company.

It is understood that under the new structure, OpenAI will operate as a for-profit company, similar to competitor AI company Anthropic. An OpenAI spokesperson said: "We will still focus on creating artificial intelligence that benefits everyone. We are working with the board to ensure we are in the best position to successfully complete our mission. The non-profit organization is at the core of our mission and will continue to exist."

It is worth noting that this restructuring plan also includes providing an unspecified amount of equity to OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman for the first time, while eliminating the cap on returns for investors. Prior to this, Altman did not hold any shares of OpenAI. He has also stated that holding shares in OpenAI doesn't mean much to him, as he has earned far more money than he needs early in his career.

Among many celebrity venture companies, OpenAI's corporate structure has always been unusual. Founded in 2015, OpenAI was a non-profit research project funded with 1 billion USD from Musk, Altman, and several Silicon Valley celebrities, focusing on building beneficial AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) for humanity. Due to its non-profit positioning, OpenAI set up a special equity structure, a limited partnership with a profit cap (OpenAI LP). OpenAI Nonprofit serves as the GP, with its board responsible for the management and operation of the entire limited partnership, as well as appointing and dismissing the CEO, with the LP primarily consisting of investors, all with capped returns.

However, with the booming success of ChatGPT, the company is selling large model products to enterprises and consumers through subscription services, accelerating the commercialization process and becoming increasingly profit-oriented. At the same time, the extremely high cost of training large models requires rounds of massive financing, but the structure of a non-profit organization restricts OpenAI's flexibility in obtaining funds and resources, affecting investors' willingness to invest. Therefore, adjusting the corporate structure seems to be a necessary step.

On the official website of OpenAI, journalists saw in the 'our structure' section, OpenAI pointed out, 'It is becoming increasingly clear that donations alone cannot make up for the computing power and talent costs needed to drive core research. Therefore, we have designed a structure to preserve the core mission, governance, and oversight of our nonprofit organization, while also being able to raise funds for our mission.'

Undoubtedly, the adjustment of the company's structure will clear obstacles for OpenAI's financing path. Recently, OpenAI is about to complete a new round of financing of approximately $6 billion, with a post-investment valuation of $150 billion. In order to advance this round of financing, in early September, there were reports indicating that OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, revealed to employees at a company meeting that the company's complex nonprofit corporate structure will be adjusted next year to become a more traditional for-profit company, in addition to retaining a nonprofit department.

In fact, OpenAI's originally complex corporate structure was also a major reason for the senior management turmoil the company faced last November. At that time, nonprofit board members revoked Altman due to poor communication and loss of trust, after several reversals, Altman was reinstated with the strong support of employees and investors. The general public opinion generally believes that removing nonprofit organizational control will make OpenAI more welcome to investors, but it has also raised concerns about artificial intelligence safety, that is, whether OpenAI can take on safety responsibilities in pursuing AGI goals to ensure AI benefits humanity.

Key executives are leaving successively.

Meanwhile, following the senior 'personnel earthquake' that occurred in November last year, OpenAI's 'aftershocks' in personnel continue. Today, OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati officially announced her departure. She stated on her personal social platform, 'I'm leaving because I want to create time and space for my exploration. Currently, my top priority is to do everything I can to ensure a smooth transition and maintain the momentum we have built.'

Altman thanked Mira Murati on his personal social platform. Altman said, 'I am deeply grateful for everything she has helped us build and achieve, but what I am most grateful for is the support and care she has given in all the difficult times. I am excited for what she has to do next, and we will soon talk more about the transition plan.'

According to public information, Mira Murati was born in Albania, earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth College in the United States, and after graduating, worked as a senior researcher at Google and Microsoft. In 2013, Murati joined Tesla and led the design, development, and release of Tesla car products such as Model X, and also participated in projects in the aviation and aerospace fields.

In 2018, she joined OpenAI, led the team in developing GPT-3, and became the company's Chief Technology Officer in 2022. It is worth noting that during the 'palace struggle' event last November, she briefly replaced Altman as OpenAI's interim CEO. In OpenAI's most important event this year, the new model GPT-4o was also released by Mira Murati.

Mila Murali has always been considered one of OpenAI's four major 'titans.' However, the other three core figures are no longer there besides Ultraman. Among the remaining three, Chief Technology Officer Mila Murali has resigned, President Greg Brockman is on long-term leave, and former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever has left to found a company called SSI (Safe Superintelligence Inc), aiming to 'directly' create safe superintelligence.

Editor/Rocky