OpenAI is still a nonprofit. Their Financials are public. A lot of folks use "profit" in a hand-wavey sense to describe something they don't like, like an organization sitting on cash or paying key employees more than they expect. The organization may not be doing what donors thought it would with their money, but that doesn't necessarily mean cash retained is profit.
Recent filings show the organization has substantially cut its compensation for key employees year after year. It's sitting on quite a bit of cash, but I think that is expected given the scope of their work.
That said, their Financials from 2019 look a little weird. They reported considerable negative expenses, including negative salaries (what did they do, a bunch of clawbacks?), and had no fundraising expenses.
> Going forward (in this post and elsewhere), “OpenAI” refers to OpenAI LP (which now employs most of our staff), and the original entity is referred to as “OpenAI Nonprofit.”
Doesn't OpenAI Nonprofit own (maybe only 51% now that Microsoft owns the other 49%) OpenAI? I don't know how these things work, but it's kinda like how there's the Mozilla Foundation (non-profit) and the Mozilla Corporation. As described on Wikipedia, "the Mozilla Corporation is a tax-paying entity, which gives it much greater freedom in the revenue and business activities it can pursue".
I think it's all quite shady, but it seems like the parent company, which in theory holds 51% of the "profit-capped" company, is still a non-profit.
I wish someone, ideally from OpenAI, would clarify the situation.
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organiz...
OpenAI is still a nonprofit. Their Financials are public. A lot of folks use "profit" in a hand-wavey sense to describe something they don't like, like an organization sitting on cash or paying key employees more than they expect. The organization may not be doing what donors thought it would with their money, but that doesn't necessarily mean cash retained is profit.
Recent filings show the organization has substantially cut its compensation for key employees year after year. It's sitting on quite a bit of cash, but I think that is expected given the scope of their work.
That said, their Financials from 2019 look a little weird. They reported considerable negative expenses, including negative salaries (what did they do, a bunch of clawbacks?), and had no fundraising expenses.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810...