OpenAI CFO says new structure opens door to potential future IPO
OpenAI's restructuring plans open the door to a potential future IPO, but any such decision would depend on the mood in public markets as well as the readiness of the company, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said on Wednesday.
OpenAI, in which Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion, outlined plans in December to convert its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation, a structure designed to balance shareholder returns with social goals, unlike nonprofits, which are solely focused on public good.
The ChatGPT-maker dialed back the plan earlier this month so that the nonprofit parent would continue to control the PBC and become a big shareholder in it, while still allowing its for-profit arm to raise more capital to keep pace in the AI race.
"A PBC gets us to an IPO-able event ... if and when we want to," Friar told the Dublin Tech Summit.
"Nobody tweet in this room that Sarah Friar just said anything about OpenAI ultimately going public," she added. "I did not. I said it could happen."
Asked what it would take for OpenAI to opt for an IPO, Friar said that any company looking at an IPO requires two things: that the company is ready and that markets are ready.
"You can show up at the altar all ready to go, and if the market's not ready for you, yeah, you're just out of luck," she said.
"Which is why you have to build a company that can be sustainable and safe regardless of where the public markets are, how open that window is."
To be a pubic company, "you definitely need some sense of predictability," Friar added.
"The market will put up with a certain degree of unpredictability. Particularly when growth is high ... but the market doesn't really love it."
(Writing by Conor Humphries Editing by Mark Potter)
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