OpenAI may have thought its announcement would invite encouragement and support, but news of a newly recapitalised non-profit foundation has instead sparked a wave of online mockery, with social media users pointing out the irony of a company valued at around $130 billion suddenly talking about giving away “freebies.” The company posted on X that it had completed its recapitalisation, saying: “The non-profit, the OpenAI Foundation, is now one of the best resourced philanthropies ever, with equity valued at ~$130B. It continues to control the OpenAI for-profit, which is now a public benefit corporation.” According to OpenAI, the Foundation will initially focus on two key areas — advancing healthcare research, including efforts to cure diseases, and building resilience to potential AI-related risks. The foundation also holds about a 26 per cent stake in the for-profit entity, making it one of the wealthiest non-profits in the world.However, the announcement was met with scepticism. X users questioned the logic of a $130 billion “non-profit” that owns a for-profit company, calling the arrangement kind of ironic.
Here are some of the reactions flooding X
- “Never ask: a woman her age; a man his salary; OpenAI what happened to their non-profit mission.”
- “Define ‘the public’ that will be benefitting from this for-profit public benefit corp.”
- “So the non-profit owns the for-profit which funds the non-profit that owns the for-profit. Got it.”
- “A company that’s constantly causing psychological harm through its own ‘paid users’ is now talking about funding health initiatives and curing diseases using words like ‘responsibility’, something it lacks. It feels almost like ‘tobacco company funding cancer research’.”
- “Public benefit, designed to collapse the work economy, copyright laws, and full economy with absolutely no plans to mitigate. Great benefits guys.”
- “You’ve built emotional connection models, then taught them to fear connection. How’s that for public good?”
- “Did the guy who claimed he doesn’t get paid and is doing it ‘because I love it’ get $7B of equity?”
- “A non-profit with a $130 B valuation. The oxymoron is the point.”
Public Citizen, a US-based advocacy group, also questioned the new structure, calling it “an attempt to entrench the status quo, in which OpenAI Foundation serves at the beck and call of OpenAI for-profit, rather than the other way around.”
