Founding as a nonprofit organization

Summary

OpenAI was founded in December 2015 in Delaware as a nonprofit organization (OpenAI, Inc.) with a mission focused on ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. The founders and early leadership framed the nonprofit structure as a way to prioritize long-term societal outcomes over private gain, with an emphasis on openness in research and collaboration (at least initially) while still managing safety and competitive concerns. In 2019, OpenAI transitioned from the pure nonprofit model to a “capped” for-profit structure to attract investment and enable employee equity compensation. This involved creating multiple entities, including holding companies and a capped for-profit subsidiary, with the nonprofit retaining controlling influence through governance safeguards and restrictions designed to limit conflicts of interest. In 2025, OpenAI proposed and then adopted a further restructuring that converted the capped for-profit into a Delaware public benefit corporation (PBC) and renamed the nonprofit as the OpenAI Foundation. Under the new arrangement, the nonprofit held a minority stake (26%) in the PBC, while Microsoft held 27% and the remainder was owned by employees and other investors; the nonprofit also retained the power to appoint and remove the PBC’s board members, aiming to preserve mission alignment while enabling additional investment.

Key Points

• 1

  OpenAI began in 2015 as a Delaware nonprofit (OpenAI, Inc.) with an AGI-for-all-mankind mission.

• 2

  In 2019, OpenAI created a capped for-profit structure to enable venture investment and equity-based compensation while keeping nonprofit governance safeguards.

• 3

  In 2025, OpenAI converted the for-profit into a public benefit corporation (PBC) and renamed the nonprofit as the OpenAI Foundation, preserving mission-related control through board appointment/removal rights.