Sam Altman looks set to get a slice of $150 billion OpenAI: Report

The Reuters report cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The current nonprofit will own a minority stake in the new for-profit venture, these sources said. A venture capital investor told BI that the new structure could pave the way for an eventual initial public offering.

The company has until now been controlled by the nonprofit board — a relic of its initial launch as a nonprofit in 2015. Details of the new structure are still being worked out, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The new corporate structure means Altman could receive equity in OpenAI. The company is trying to remove the cap on investor returns, sources told Reuters.

Altman did not have a stake in OpenAI and reportedly took a salary of just $65,000, according to a June report. report in The Wall Street Journal. In 2023, he said not having a stake didn’t bother him because he had “enough money”.

“I still get a lot of selfish benefits out of it,” Altman said at a Bloomberg Tech Summit at the time.

However, he has amassed a considerable net worth thanks to his investments in other companies. A Journal report earlier this year estimated its holdings, which included stakes in Stripe, Airbnb and Reddit, to be worth $2.8 billion.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, but a spokesperson told Reuters: “We remain focused on building AI that benefits everyone, and we are working with our board to ensure that we are the better positioned to succeed. in our mission the nonprofit is central to our mission and will continue to be.”

The potential changes follow a tumultuous year for the company’s leadership. Last November, Altman was briefly, ultimately unsuccessfully, ousted by his board for not being “consistently honest in his communications,” it said, without elaborating. Several board members at the time questioned Altman’s approach to AI development and wanted Altman to be more careful.

Since then, several high-profile researchers have left the company, citing similar concerns about its aggressive approach to AI development. Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever and Chief Alignment Jan Leike left in May. Last month, President Greg Brockman announced he would be taking a sabbatical until the end of the year. On Wednesday, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati also announced her resignation, saying she wanted to “create the time and space to do my own reflection.”

An AI investor told Busines Insider that potential changes to the company’s structure could help pave the way for an initial public offering — but in the meantime, they underscore what a troubled company it has been.

“OpenAI is both the most fascinating and terrifying company of our time,” Matt Turck, partner at venture firm FirstMark, which has invested in AI companies including Dataiku, Synthesia and Ada, told Business Insider . “By that I mean he’s doing incredibly important work, creating some of the most impressive products ever – yet he seems constantly on the verge of implosion.”

Still, he thinks Altman’s potential payout is good for the company. “It feels part of the necessary normalization of OpenAI into a regular corporate structure, paving the way for an IPO.”