Reuters reports OpenAI plans to convert to a for-profit structure
Report says Altman would receive a stake for the first time and the nonprofit board would lose its controlling role, a plan not finalised until late 2025.
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Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the discussions, that OpenAI was working on a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit corporation no longer controlled by its non-profit board. Under the plan, Sam Altman would receive an equity stake in the company for the first time — reporting at the time put the figure at around 7% of a business valued near $150 billion — a striking reversal for a chief executive who had previously and repeatedly said he held no equity in OpenAI.
OpenAI had operated since 2019 as a for-profit subsidiary capped in the returns it could pay investors, governed by a non-profit board whose founding charter committed the organisation to ensuring artificial general intelligence benefited “all of humanity” rather than shareholders. The reported plan would remove that governing structure’s control, converting the operating business into a public benefit corporation while some non-profit entity continued to exist alongside it in a reduced role. Asked about the reports at a conference days later, Altman confirmed the company was “thinking about” a restructuring but said it was unrelated to the departure that same day of chief technology officer Mira Murati and two other senior research leaders.
The report drew criticism from figures who had watched OpenAI’s structure closely, including from Mozilla’s leadership, who argued the move meant OpenAI “no longer exists as a public interest organisation” in anything but name. It also fuelled arguments already underway in litigation brought by Elon Musk, who had co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit and objected to its commercialisation.
The plan reported here was not the one OpenAI ultimately executed. The conversion took over a year of negotiation with the California and Delaware attorneys general and was not finalised until late 2025, in a structure that preserved a non-profit foundation holding a substantial stake and some governance rights rather than eliminating non-profit control outright.