“Nonprofits will control and become the major shareholder of PBC, providing nonprofits with better resources to support many benefits,” OpenAI’s blog post said. “Our mission remains the same and PBC will perform the same mission.”
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement to Wired that she was encouraged by Openai for considering her concerns and allowed nonprofits to retain control. “Now that the company has a new plan, I intend to ensure it complies with Delaware law by ensuring it complies with OpenAI’s charitable purposes and retaining appropriate controls for the for-profit entity,” Jennings said.
Elissa Perez, spokesman for the California Attorney General’s Office, said in a statement that her office is also reviewing the new plan.
Robert Weissman, co-president of public citizens who advocate for large corporations, said the startup’s plans remain unsatisfactory. He claims there seems to be no new restrictions to ensure compliance with OpenAI’s nonprofit mission, which is to benefit all humans with powerful AI tools. “This took us out of our position, a nonprofit that allegedly controls for-profit, but has no obvious restrictions on for-profit,” Weissman told Wired.
Openai’s plan calls on its new nonprofit organization to hold stakes in public welfare companies. The recent funding round has valued Openai to $300 billion, so these stocks can be very profitable as nonprofits sell or borrow money from them. California philanthropists have called on nonprofits to obtain “fair value” stocks, which could lead to it being the most funded foundation ever. They also want nonprofits to be independent of the company so that corporate interests do not undermine charitable donations. On Monday, activists applied to Bonta to call on Bonta to closely review whether Openai’s plan would achieve the separation.
OpenAI spokesman Steve Sharpe said nonprofits will have the right to appoint and remove them from public-benefit companies. “Move to one [public-benefit corporation] He added that the restricted for-profit structure will be removed. PBC will have a traditional capital structure that allows employees, investors and nonprofit organizations to hold stakes. ”
“Openai is not a regular company, never,” Altman wrote in an email to employees included in the company announcement.
Updated 5/5/25 7:35 ET: This story has been updated, including OpenAI and other comments from the California Attorney General’s Office.
