After criticism, OpenAI shelves plans to become a for-profit company

OpenAI, the company that develops ChatGPT, has decided to cancel its plans to transform the organization into a for-profit company. Instead, the non-profit organization that founded OpenAI will continue to run the business as before. The for-profit plans, announced in December 2024, were justified at the time by a need to secure sufficient capital to keep developing expensive artificial general intelligence (AGI). Now, instead of a full conversion to a for-profit company, OpenAI's for-profit LLC will be transformed into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), which is a type of US company that's beholden to both its shareholders and its purpose-driven mission. The existing OpenAI non-profit organization will retain control of the PBC and become one of its largest shareholders.