Public needs more details on OpenAI restructure proposal

by Page Hedley and Orson Agular

27 June, 2025

Chris Lehane, Vice President of Global Affairs for OpenAI, has claimed that restructuring would benefit the public. But there are many reasons for the public to feel wary.

OpenAI’s founders believed that artificial general intelligence (AGI) could have transformative benefits for humanity. But they also feared it could be catastrophically dangerous if developed irresponsibly and concentrate unprecedented levels of wealth and power in the hands of a few.

That’s why they founded OpenAI as a nonprofit, with a legally enforceable duty to put the interests of the public over those of its investors. But this commitment is now under threat.

How did we come to this point? Building cutting-edge AI is expensive. To fund its charitable mission, OpenAI adopted a nonprofit/for-profit hybrid structure. It created a for-profit limited liability corporation (LLC) to raise money from investors. But importantly, written into the LLC’s founding documents is the same requirement to put the interests of the public over those of its investors.

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