OpenAI has reshaped its organisational structure by turning its for-profit venture into a public benefit corporation under Delaware law. This change preserves the non‐profit’s oversight, a core principle since the firm’s 2015 inception, ensuring that profits continue to be reinvested in education, health, public service, and scientific research.
Not long ago, the company explored a complete shift to a for-profit model. Instead, it chose to retain the existing setup where the non-profit remains at the helm. As Chairman Bret Taylor explains, “OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit, and is today overseen and controlled by that nonprofit. Going forward, it will continue to be overseen and controlled by that nonprofit.”
The restructuring also ends the capped-profit model, which had limited returns for investors. OpenAI will now settle on a standard capital structure with regular shares. This isn’t a sale but rather a move toward a simpler framework—one that could eventually open the door to investments scaling into the hundreds of billions, or even trillions, of dollars.
Earlier, some critics argued that mixing non-profit status with for-profit operations allowed OpenAI to gain tax advantages and attract talent, while raising concerns that the drive for profit might compromise its charitable mission. These issues even led to legal challenges from figures like Elon Musk and former employees. The latest changes seem designed to build back confidence among staff, investors, and regulators alike.
In collaboration with the Attorneys General of California and Delaware, OpenAI has secured approval for its new structure, which blends standard corporate practices with non-profit oversight. In an internal message, CEO Sam Altman remarked, “OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be,” highlighting the firm’s commitment to responsibly advancing artificial intelligence. This reorganisation paves the way for making cutting-edge AI tools accessible to more people while tackling the enormous investment needs head-on.
