OpenAI is reportedly pushing ahead with plans to become a for-profit company, as more senior figures left the ChatGPT developer after the surprise exit of its chief technology officer, Mira Murati.
The San Francisco-based startup is preparing to change its corporate structure as it seeks $6.5bn (£4.9bn) of new funding, according to reports.
Under the changes, OpenAI will become a for-profit benefit corporation – an entity that makes profits but is committed to the social and public good – that will no longer be controlled by its nonprofit board, Reuters reported.
OpenAI declined to comment on the specific details of the reports but a spokesperson said the startup’s nonprofit board would not be scrapped.
“We remain focused on building AI that benefits everyone, and we’re working with our board to ensure that we’re best positioned to succeed in our mission. The nonprofit is core to our mission and will continue to exist,” said the spokesperson.
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 and four years later added a for-profit subsidiary in which Microsoft is the biggest investor. On its website OpenAI describes its structure as “a partnership between our original nonprofit and a new capped profit arm”.
The ChatGPT developer, whose CEO, Sam Altman, has become the poster child for the AI boom, is reportedly heading for a new valuation of $150bn under the new fundraising, broadly in line with Uber’s. Apple and chipmaker Nvidia are among the companies cited in reports as potential investors in the new funding round.
OpenAI’s progress towards its goal of creating artificial general intelligence – which it describes as “AI systems that are generally smarter than humans” – has alarmed former employees. William Saunders, a research engineer who left OpenAI this year, said he left the company because he “lost faith” it would make responsible decisions about AGI, while a former leading safety researcher at the company, Jan Leike, claimed in May that OpenAI was prioritising “shiny products” over safety.
Responding to Leike’s comments on X at the time, Altman wrote: “He’s right we have a lot more to do; we are committed to doing it.”
Reports of the corporate restructuring process, which could run into next year, came as more senior technical staff announced their departures. Murati – who was the figurehead for the May launch of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model – announced on Wednesday she was leaving. She had also spent a short period of time as OpenAI’s temporary CEO in November last year, when Altman was fired and then reinstated by the nonprofit board.
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Hours later, two additional colleagues, Barret Zoph and Bob McGrew, also quit, according to a post from Altman on social media platform X. Zoph held the title VP research, and McGrew held the title of chief research officer.
“Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently of each other and amicably, but the timing of Mira’s decision was such that it made sense to now do this all at once, so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership,” Altman wrote.
He added that leadership changes like Murati’s departure were a “natural part of companies”, adding: “I obviously won’t pretend it’s natural for this one to be so abrupt, but we are not a normal company.”
