OpenAI could switch to for-profit company giving Sam Altman a stake

OpenAI is reportedly pushing ahead with plans to transform into a for-profit company and is in discussions to give chief executive Sam Altman an equity stake in the firm, which comes as the ChatGPT maker saw a series of senior staff departures.

“OpenAI remains an entirely independent company governed by the OpenAI Nonprofit,” the company states on its website, which has been one of the issues of contention that contributed to the short-lived board coup against Altman and a lawsuit against the company by cofounder Elon Musk.

The news of the restructuring was first reported by Reuters which citedunnamed sources. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported it could give Altman a 7 per cent stake in OpenAI.

The company is reportedly undergoing a new funding round that could value it at more than $150 billion (€134 billion).

High-profile departures

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, chief technology officer Mira Murati said in a written statement that, after much reflection, she has “made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI”.

“I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” she said.

Two other top executives are also on their way out, CEO Sam Altman announced later on Wednesday.

The decisions by Murati, as well as OpenAI’s chief research officer Bob McGrew and another research leader, Barret Zoph, were made “independently of each other and amicably,” Altman said in a note to employees he shared on social media.

They are the latest high-profile departures from San Francisco-based company, which started as a nonprofit research laboratory and is best known for making ChatGPT.

Its president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, said in August he was “taking a sabbatical” through the end of the year. Another co-founder, John Schulman, left in August for rival Anthropic, founded in 2021 by a group of ex-OpenAI leaders.

Yet another co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, who led a team focused on AI safety, left in May and has started his own AI company.

Days after Sutskever’s departure, his safety team co-leader Jan Leike also resigned and criticised OpenAI for letting safety “take a backseat to shiny products.”

‘Not a normal company’

Murati spoke positively of the company and Altman in a departing note to colleagues shared on social media, describing it as “at the pinnacle of AI innovation” and saying it’s hard to leave a place one cherishes.

Altman expressed his gratitude for Murati’s service and said leadership changes are natural for a fast-growing company.

“I obviously won’t pretend it’s natural for this one to be so abrupt, but we are not a normal company,” Altman said in a post on X that also announced that six other people were taking new roles.

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Murati was suddenly catapulted to be the company’s interim CEO late last year after the board of directors fired Altman, sparking upheaval in the AI industry. The company later brought in another interim CEO before restoring Altman to his leadership role and replacing most of the board members who ousted him.