Openi said Monday who is pursuing a new renovation plan after conversations with Delaware and California lawyers, both who were looking closely while Openi tried to get rid of his strange corporate structure.
Currently, the non -profit advice of Openi regulates the operations for profit for the organization. Based on the new plan, Openi’s leg for profit will become a company for public benefits (PBC), but will still be controlled by Openi’s non -profit.
The new renovation plan may be sufficient to appease the regulatory and investors of Openi, who one day paid billions in the company waiting for a return. But it could also throw a key in the future plans of Openai, in particular if the company tries to become public.
The IPO route
Last December, Openii outlined a path that would allow him to make his arm for profit go under the control of his non -profit advice, which is bound by certain obligations, including a clause in his card to ensure that the artificial general intelligence benefits from all humanity.
That plan came out of the window on Monday. Now, Openi intends to have his non -profit control and also be a great shareholder of the aforementioned PBC.
In addition to allowing Openi to operate more as a conventional company, a simpler structure could open the doors to Openai by collecting additional capital by becoming public through an ipo. Given the scale of Openai, the enormous amount of money that burns and the massive interest of the public, an iPo seems that something open could eventually explore.
Stephen Diamond, professor of corporate government at the University of Santa Clara, told Techcrunch that there is a very limited path for Openi which becomes a public company as part of its transition plan just proposed. While non -profit organizations cannot become public, PBC can.
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However, there AND A question about what Openi’s PBC would have possessed was openai to Ipo.
“My meaning is that there is a huge value of intellectual property at the level of non -profit Openni,” Diamond said in an interview. “But if the PBC does not have and controls the main IP, but it is only authorized to use it, then what is the IPO? This is the challenge.”
Diamond observed that we do not know the exact details of the Openi plan and that it is not clear if in the end it will be successful. In one and -mail to Techcrunch, the spokesperson for Openi Steve Sharpe said that Openi’s non -profit will continue to control the company’s technology and that while Openai has no intention of becoming public at the moment, an iPo would be “theoretically” possible under the proposed structure.
If the non -profit of Openai really has the control of the organization’s critical technology, shareholders would not have a lot of say in the company’s decisions, said Rose Chan Loui, executive director founder of the UCLA legal program on philanthropy and non -profit organizations. Unlike the purchase of shares in a typical company, Openi’s shareholders should know that their influence on society is limited.
“I think an iPo is much more difficult in this scenario,” Loui said in an interview with Techcrunch.
Folding to pressure
Openi was crushed on all ends during the renovation attempt.
Just last week, a group of former Openi employees asked the California and Delaware AGs to block the conversion of the startup, claiming that it was in contrast with Openi’s charity roots. Both AGs said to Techcrunch that they are reviewing Openi’s new plan.
Openi’s proposal must also appease the largest private investors of the company, including Microsoft and SoftBank, whose investments on many billion dollars depend on Openni obtaining a sort of renovation on the finish line. The new Plan of Openai offers the company a more conventional capital structure, which means that employees, investors and non -profit will directly maintain equity.
Microsoft has not yet given his blessing to Openai on the new corporate structure, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The Cloud Provider wishes to ensure that the new structure adequately protects its investments from many billion dollars in Openni. It is not clear if other key interested parties have approved the agreement.
Nobody has exerted more pressure on the renovation of Openi compared to Elon Musk. The billionaire who co-founded Openii and now competes with it through his to startups XAI has presented an acquisition offer of $ 97 billion to increase the price of the non-profit activities of Openni and guide the transition for profit of the chatgpt manufacturer. Musk also made the renovation of Openi a focal point in his cause against the start and Microsoft. At the base, the cause of Musk accuses Openi of abandoning his non -profit mission to develop agi and distribute it in a broad sense.
Last week, a federal judge denied some of Openii’s motions to reject requests in Musk’s cause. According to Diamond, this was a modest victory for Musk and may have played a role in Openi’s evolving path. However, in a briefing with the members of the press on Monday, Altman denied that the cause had an impact on Openi’s plans.
Marc Toberoff, Musk’s main consultant in his case against Openi, told Techcrunch the new company renovation plan “nothing changes”, which implies that Musk will not be so fast to drop the case.
