become a for-profit company

OpenAI has announced that has completed its desired restructuring. From a non-profit company now becomes a for-profit company Yes, it is still controlled by a non-profit parent company, The OpenAI Foundation. The announcement is in fact double, because this transition makes Microsoft’s situation now noticeably different… and profitable.

Profit spirit, but with small print. The new for-profit company is called OpenAI Group PBC (Public Benefit Corporation). This acronym responds to a special type of company in the US in which lucrative purposes are combined with a social or ethical mission. Unlike a traditional corporation, a PBC has a legal duty to consider not only the interests of shareholders, but also the impact on society and the environment.

But it is still under the umbrella of The OpenAI Foundation. The restructuring makes The OpenAI Foundation becomes the parent company of OpenAI Group PBC. Additionally, the non-profit corporation will have a stake in the PBC that is currently valued at about $130 billion. Of them, 25,000 will begin to be used to work on solutions and programs that accelerate development in the healthcare field and improve infrastructure while minimizing risk.

A long and thorny process. The process takes more than a year in operation and is completed after getting the go-ahead from the attorney general’s offices in both California and Delaware. The legal battle with Elon Musk made things even more complicatedbut all those obstacles have finally been overcome and OpenAI achieves one of its great objectives for 2025. One that did not have to do directly with AI models, but with the financial part of a company that acted like a traditional corporation without being one. This avoids problems and legal obstacles and gives free rein to continue raising investment rounds, for example. In fact, if OpenAI had not announced this restructuring before the end of the year, it would have lost 10 billion of the investment he announced with SoftBank.

Microsoft’s new role. In a separate advertisement But totally related to the news, those responsible for OpenAI were talking about how the alliance with Microsoft is now. The company, which became OpenAI’s great partner in 2019 with an investment that she ended up being a multimillionaire In 2023, it had a confirmed 32.5% stake. With the new structure it will have a 27% stake in the PBC, and that percentage is equivalent to about 135 billion dollars. Not bad, considering that Microsoft invested approximately 10 times less.

What happens if OpenAI achieves an AGI. In that case, there will be several important consequences.

• A crucial first step will be for a panel of independent experts to verify that that AGI is effectively an AGI.
• Even with that achievement, Microsoft’s Intellectual Property (IP) rights on OpenAI models and products extend until 2032 and also include models developed after AGI is declared.
• Revenue sharing will remain in effect until the AGI is verified by the expert panel.
• Those Microsoft IP rights to the research (the confidential methods used in developing AI models) will end when the AGI is verified or in 2030, whichever comes first.

Thus, the AGI is no longer an immediate “off button” on collaboration, but rather triggers a controlled and planned transition that reduces some Microsoft rights but maintains others until 2032.

Greater flexibility for both parties. The new agreement gives more room for maneuver to both companies:

• Microsoft may pursue AGI independently or in partnership with third parties
• OpenAI may collaborate its products with third parties, although API products developed with third parties will remain exclusive to Azure
• On the other hand, OpenAI will be able to release models with open weights as long as they meet the required capacity criteria.

Image | Wikipedia | Heisenberg Media

In Xataka | OpenAI is already a binary bet: either get AGI, or everything blows up