With several top executives heading for retirement, OpenAI is reportedly considering giving CEO Sam Altman a 7% stake while restructuring the artificial intelligence giant as a for-profit company.
His 7% stake in Microsoft-backed OpenAI could soon be worth a massive $10.5 billion to Altman, who has never held an ownership stake in the company before.
Bloomberg was first to report the news. He cited anonymous sources as to the potential size of Altman's holding.
OpenAI is currently in the midst of a $6.5 billion funding round led by Thrive Capital that puts the company at a valuation of $150 billion.
According to multiple reports, OpenAI plans to reorganize as a for-profit public benefit corporation, which means that the non-profit board of directors that previously oversaw its operations will no longer have control.
A for-profit corporation is an organization that considers both societal impact and profit when making decisions. Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has a similar structure.
Bloomberg reports that OpenAI executives are still discussing the details of the restructuring, with no final timeline set, and that Altman's shareholding could change or it may not happen at all.
“We remain focused on building AI that benefits everyone and are working with the board to ensure we are best positioned to achieve our mission. The nonprofit is core to our mission and will remain in existence,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement.
The restructuring considerations come at a time of turmoil for OpenAI.
The company's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, who had worked closely with Altman, suddenly announced her resignation on Wednesday, shortly before the first reports of the company's possible for-profit conversion broke.
In a message to OpenAI staff shared at X, Murati said he was “stepping down because I want to create the time and space to pursue my own explorations. For now, my primary focus is doing all I can to ensure a smooth transition and maintain the momentum we've built.”
Murati's departure reportedly came as a surprise to OpenAI employees, some of whom shared “what the heck” emojis in response to her post on an internal Slack channel, according to Bloomberg.
Altman later confirmed that two other OpenAI executives, chief research officer Bob McGrew and another principal investigator, Barrett Zoff, were also leaving.
“While Mira, Bob and Barrett each made these decisions independently and amicably, given the timing of Mira's decision, it makes sense to do this all at once so we can work together to ensure a smooth transition to the next generation of leadership.” Altman wrote in X.
The CEO added that OpenAI's six current executives will report directly to Altman after they leave the company.
“Management changes are a natural part of any company, especially one that is growing quickly and has high demands,” Altman added. “I don't want to say it's natural that these changes were so sudden, but we're not a normal company.”
OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman said last month that he plans to take an extended leave of absence through the end of the year.
Another co-founder, John Shulman, recently moved to Anthropic, an OpenAI rival.
Meanwhile, OpenAI disbanded its “Superalignment” team, which was responsible for ensuring the safe development of advanced AI, after co-founders Ilya Sutskever and researcher Jan Reicke resigned in May.
