Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella (L) speaks with Open I CEO Sam Altman, who participated in a video during the Microsoft Build 2025 meeting held in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
Openai said Thursday that nonprofit parents will continue to oversee the company and own more than $100 billion in shares.
The artificial intelligence startup, which has recently been worth $500 billion, said the structure will make nonprofits “one of the world’s most resourced charities,” allowing the company to continue raising capital.
Openai also announced that it has signed a non-binding memorandum Microsoftprovides an overview of the next stages of a partnership. Microsoft invested more than $13 billion in Openai and supported the company in 2019, three years before the launch of Chatbot ChatGpt.
“We are actively working to complete the terms and conditions with a decisive agreement,” Openai said in a joint statement with Microsoft, the company’s leading cloud partner. “Together, we continue to focus on providing the best AI tools for everyone based on our shared commitment to safety.”
In May, Openai succumbed to pressure from civic leaders and former employees, and announced that its nonprofit would remain in control even if the company had restructured into a public benefits company. Openai was founded in 2015 as a non-profit research lab, but in recent years it has become one of the fastest growing commercial organizations on the planet.
Openai said Thursday it is working closely with California and Delaware Attorney General to establish the structure.
“Openai started as a nonprofit and remains one today, and continues to be one. The nonprofit retains the authority to guide our future,” the company’s chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement Thursday.
The startup got caught up in a fierce legal battle with one of its co-founders, Elon Musk. Musk is trying to prevent Openai from converting it into a for-profit enterprise as it competes with his startup, Xai, in the generator AI market.
Openai said its nonprofit organization has begun applying for the first phase of its $50 million grant initiative aimed at supporting other nonprofits and community organizations across AI literacy, economic opportunities and community innovation.
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