Openai Board of Directors is having complex negotiations to become a purposeful profit company, and is fighting to determine the price of Microsoft's share in the emerging company during talks to evaluate its newly formed charitable arm at $ 30 billion.
The manufacturer of Chatgpt, which is supervised by its non -purposeful board of directors, has been discussing the restructuring since last September, which would divide the startup to two parts. Her charitable arm, charged with the original Openai mission of “Humanitarian benefit”, will be granted a share in the newly formed public benefit company (PBC).
One of the obstacles to this conversion was to determine the amount of shares that will be maintained by the emerging company, Microsoft, at the Chinese People's Bank, according to people familiar with the talks. Other considerations must also be settled, such as the size of the shares that CEO Sam Altman will receive in the new company.
According to three people familiar with the negotiations, the value of the charitable arm can be estimated at about 30 billion dollars, but the final price has not yet been determined. One person added that the majority of this value will be achieved in the form of shares in the program and budget committee, provided that the rest is paid in cash.
“This is a new phenomenon as non -profit organizations have shares in profitable institutions,” said Carla Dennis, CEO of KDA, adding that such transactions are usually paid in cash.
Restructuring will create “one of the best non -profit organizations in terms of resources in history,” according to what he mentioned Openai. But some, including Elon Musk, argue that the true value of the non -profit organization is much higher, given its current control over Openai, which is estimated at $ 157 billion.
This switch is designed to allow Openai to collect tens of billions of dollars from investors, which is what the startup considers necessary to develop advanced artificial intelligence models before competitors. But it is also a great departure from the Openai as a very uncomfortable and complex movement and has little legal precedents.
Openai agreed to two years old to complete the transfer with investors as part of the last financing round in September. If the change is not completed by the deadline, investors can recover a portion of the $ 6.6 billion that they invested in the company.
Among the current stakeholders, Microsoft's relationship with Openai is the most sensitive.
A person close to Openai said that knowing the amount of shares that Microsoft can get without attracting the attention of anti -monopoly is another important part of disrupting the transformation into PBC.
Openai and Microsoft rejected the comment.
Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it will change the structure of its deal with Openai to enable the emerging company to use cloud computing services for competitors.
This step means that Microsoft will abandon its position as the exclusive cloud service provider of Openai, but it reserves the right of the first rejection. Microsoft said that many “main elements” of its partnership with Openai will remain until the end of 2030, when its current deal ends, including revenue sharing arrangements.
The move came at a time when Openai announced this week Join a joint project With the Japanese company Softbank, which is called Stargate, with plans to build at least $ 100 billion on artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
This step has proven to become a profitable company to be controversial in the Silicon Valley, where the battle around Openai's future is scheduled to affect the global race to develop and marketing obstetric artificial intelligence.
The proposed deal has led to noisy lawsuits from Musk, one of the Openai founders who has since created a group of competition, Xai. “Musk” sought a judicial order against the conversion, claiming that Openai deceived the first donors, including the same, who believed that they were supporting a research group.
Openai was founded as a non -profit organization in 2015. In 2019, it developed a profitable sub -company, which limited the returns of investors and gave the non -profit board of directors full control over the profitable arm.
Currently, its financial future is associated with developments such as access to artificial general intelligence (AGI), a point where technology has similar levels of intelligence in humans. Foundations related to AGI It is removed from the new structure, according to the Financial Times newspaper earlier.
The complex companies ’governance of the company was scrutinized in November 2023, when its non -profit board topple to Amman, to be returned to his position shortly after.
People close to negotiations hope that the deal will be completed this year, but they added that the talks are vulnerable to change and are likely to last for several months.
The complications of pricing such emerging and powerful technology are another issue.
This decision is the responsibility of the Openai Board of Directors, which includes Altman, former Salesforce President Brett Taylor, and former US Treasury Secretary, Larry Samers. They condemn their basic duty towards “humanity, not Openai investors”, according to the charter of the startup.
“There is a clear conflict of interests for the Board of Directors when (the value of the non -profit organization) negotiate. A former Openai employee said:“ Of course, the board of directors wants to pay as much money as possible. ”I am not sure even that a real -term real process can This conflict is resolved. ”
Kathleen Jennings, the prosecutor in Dilayer, where Openai was founded more information about the deal.
Jennings said it is her responsibility to ensure that the conversion is made at a fair price and for the public interest. However, Openai has not yet provided such details as it is still under settlement internally and with stakeholders.
A person familiar with the deliberations said: “There is no real precedent for this.” “A research company has a value of $ 157 billion.”
Participated in the coverage of Tabi Kind and Stephen Morris in San Francisco
