Latest news with #BretTaylor
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
OpenAI chairman's career advice? Remember what Eric Schmidt told Sheryl Sandberg about joining Google.
OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor believes you shouldn't allow pride to stand in the way of success. If someone offers you a seat on the "rocket ship," you don't ask which seat, you get on, he said, recalling Eric Schmidt's conversation with Sheryl Sandberg. Flexibility and perspective are key in both your career and life, he said on an episode of the "Grit" podcast. Bret Taylor, the chairman of OpenAI, believes that if you have the chance to attach yourself to success, you shouldn't let ego get in the way. "I think this is the quote I always heard, was Eric Schmidt to Sheryl Sandberg: 'If someone offers you a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat,' you know? I like that philosophy of life," Taylor said on an episode of "Grit." At the time, Sandberg, who would famously later become Facebook's chief operations officer, was deciding whether or not to join a different tech company: Google. Google was a tiny fraction of the size in 2001, with fewer than 300 people. Eric Schmidt had recently been brought on by cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to be CEO. Sandberg talked about her conversation with Schmidt during a speech to Harvard students. "So I sat down with Eric Schmidt, who had just become the CEO, and I showed him the spreadsheet and I said, this job meets none of my criteria," Sandberg recalled. "He put his hand on my spreadsheet and he looked at me and said, 'Don't be an idiot. Get on a rocket ship. When companies are growing quickly and they are having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves. If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on.'" Sandberg did end up taking the job, and joined as the general manager of Google's business unit, which had four people at the time. "I do think, especially in Silicon Valley, there's just unique moments, and you just have to be self-aware and aware of the market," OpenAI's Taylor said. Beyond being ready to jump at opportunity wherever it comes knocking at your door, remaining broadly flexible is also important, he added. "Most of the unhappiest people I know are rigidly following a plan and not observant of their own happiness or observant of the opportunities around them," Taylor said. "I actually think that a big part of life is recognizing when there's a unique opportunity that you didn't plan for, and asking yourself the question, 'Should I change my plans?' Whether that's in your personal life or your professional life." Taylor's own career spans Big Tech and startups alike — from leading the team that helped create Google Maps and acting as co-CEO of Salesforce, to founding his own AI company, Sierra. "The idea of sitting on the sidelines, and drinking a mai tai on a beach, doesn't give me joy at all," he said. "I want to build." Just as Taylor was leaving Salesforce, ChatGPT was released. After a conversation over lunch with his cofounder, Clay Bavor, Taylor said the decision to start Sierra was set. But even if he wasn't heading this particular company, he added, he would still be working in an adjacent sphere. "I would be building open source software if not running a company right now, because I just want to work in the technology and help shape it," Taylor said. "Because it's the most exciting technology of my memory, and I want to play a part in shaping how we all use it." That's another key piece of Taylor's personal philosophy: being as involved as possible in shaping the trajectory of the world. "There's this Alan Kay quote: 'The best way to predict the future is to invent it.' And that is like, my operating principle," he said. "I want to impact the future, and I want to help invent it." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
OpenAI backs off push to become for-profit company
OpenAI announced on Monday that the artificial intelligence (AI) giant is scuttling its plan to move the company away from a nonprofit structure to becoming a for-profit company. The ChatGPT-maker created a for-profit limited liability company (LLC), which it will now convert into a public benefit corporation that considers the interests of shareholders as well as OpenAI's mission. OpenAI's nonprofit will have operational control over the public benefit corporation and will be a large shareholder in it. "We made the decision for the nonprofit to retain control of OpenAI after hearing from civic leaders and engaging in constructive dialogue with the offices of the Attorney General of Delaware and the Attorney General of California," OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement. Openai Shakes Up Corporate Structure With Goal Of Scaling Up Agi Investment OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on Nov. 6, 2023, in San Francisco, California. "We thank both offices and we look forward to continuing these important conversations to make sure OpenAI can continue to effectively pursue its mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who prompted the company's exploration of moving to a for-profit structure to make it easier for the company to raise the large amounts of money for investments he thinks will be needed to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), sent a letter to employees explaining the decision and what it means for the company. Read On The Fox Business App "OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit, is today a nonprofit that oversees and controls the for-profit, and going forward will remain a nonprofit that oversees and controls the for-profit. That will not change," Altman wrote. Ai Will Help Lower Prices, But Could Be Used By Authoritarian Governments, Openai Ceo Sam Altman Says Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a talk session with SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at an event titled "Transforming Business through AI" in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 3. He added that public benefit corporations, which will be the new structure for OpenAI's for-profit entity, have "become the standard for-profit structure for other AGI labs like Anthropic and as well as many purpose-driven companies like Patagonia. We think it makes sense for us, too." "Instead of our current complex capped-profit structure – which made sense when it looked like there might be one dominant AGI effort but doesn't in a world of many great AGI companies – we are moving to a normal capital structure where everyone has stock. This is not a sale, but a change of structure to something simpler," Altman wrote. The OpenAI co-founder went on to say that the company wants "to be able to operate and get resources in such a way that we can make our services broadly available to all of humanity, which currently requires hundreds of billions of dollars and may eventually require trillions of dollars. We believe this is the best way for us to fulfill our mission and to get people to create massive benefits for each other with these new tools."
Epoch Times
06-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
OpenAI Reverses Course, Will Remain Under Nonprofit Control
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced Monday that it will retain its nonprofit board's control over its multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence business. 'OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit, and is today overseen and controlled by that nonprofit,' Bret Taylor, chairman of OpenAI's board of directors, According to Taylor, the decision followed feedback from civic leaders and discussions with the Attorneys General of Delaware and California, oversight authority over OpenAI's nonprofit status, and could have intervened to block any changes. OpenAI is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Francisco. Although the company no longer seeks to remove nonprofit oversight, it will continue with its plan to restructure its for-profit subsidiary into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC)—a corporate model that allows companies to pursue profit while also committing to a broader social mission. 'The nonprofit will control and also be a large shareholder of the PBC, giving the nonprofit better resources to support many benefits,' Taylor said. 'Our mission remains the same, and the PBC will have the same mission.' OpenAI was originally incorporated in Delaware as a nonprofit that controls a for-profit, with a 'capped-profit' model that allows limited returns for investors and employees. Its initial mission was to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) safely and for the benefit of humanity. Related Stories 4/10/2025 3/5/2025 However, as the development of models like ChatGPT became increasingly expensive, the company sought new funding models to sustain its growth. In December 2024, it announced plans to convert its for-profit subsidiary into a Delaware PBC, sparking concerns about whether the company would fairly allocate its assets between arms and maintain fidelity to its original charitable purpose. The restructuring plan triggered criticism and legal challenges, including a high-profile lawsuit from Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI who departed the company before it rose to prominence in the AI industry. The world's richest man alleged that OpenAI had breached its contract and committed fraud by drifting from its original nonprofit mission. On May 1, a federal judge in California Meanwhile, former OpenAI employees have called on regulators to step in. Last month, a coalition of more than 30 individuals—including Nobel laureates, law professors, and former OpenAI engineers—submitted 'OpenAI is trying to build AGI, but building AGI is not its mission,' reads the letter spearheaded by Page Hedley, who served as a policy and ethics adviser at OpenAI from 2017 to 2018. 'OpenAI's charitable purpose is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity rather than advancing the private gain of any person.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nonprofit keeps control over OpenAI as ChatGPT creator sheds for-profit conversion plans
ChatGPT creator OpenAI ( announced on Monday that it would remain under the control of a nonprofit, a move that followed public questions, criticisms, and litigation about plans for the artificial intelligence upstart to become a for-profit business. OpenAI co-founder and board chairman Bret Taylor posted the news to the organization's website, saying OpenAI would remain a charitable organization and convert its for-profit subsidiary into a public-benefit corporation. The charity that oversees OpenAI will control that corporation as a large shareholder. 'OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit, and is today overseen and controlled by that nonprofit,' Taylor said. 'Going forward, it will continue to be overseen and controlled by that nonprofit.' CEO Sam Altman said in a message to employees that "we made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware." Rose Chan Loui, founding executive director of UCLA's Lowell Milken Center on Philanthropy and Nonprofits, called the decision a "great result" but added that "the devil is in the details." 'We would hope that the nonprofit, regardless of the size of its equity stake, will truly be in control of how artificial intelligence ... is developed by OpenAI. That this original purpose, and not profit, is paramount." OpenAI began in 2015 as a nonprofit under the name OpenAI Inc., a nod to its mission of advancing humanity instead of pursuing profits. Things got more complicated in 2019 when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his team created a for-profit subsidiary to raise outside venture capital — including billions from Microsoft. It was structured in such a way that the for-profit subsidiary, technically owned by a holding company owned by OpenAI employees and investors, remained under the control of the nonprofit and its board of directors while giving its biggest backer (Microsoft) no board seats and no voting power. OpenAI had hoped to shed its nonprofit status to attract additional investors and renegotiate with existing ones. The move would have also detached it from its legal responsibility to carry out its original organizational purpose: to "advance digital intelligence in a way that is most likely to benefit humanity." Two major roadblocks stood in the way of OpenAI's original plan to convert its nonprofit parent organization into a for-profit enterprise. One is that OpenAI the nonprofit was legally required to receive fair market value in exchange for selling its assets. OpenAI was estimated at $300 billion in its latest funding round, in March. Unfair compensation to the nonprofit threatened to expose OpenAI to legal challenges, especially from state attorneys general and Delaware in particular, where the nonprofit is registered. Another is a lawsuit already set for trial, filed by OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk against the charity's board members and co-founder Sam Altman, in which Musk is seeking to block OpenAI from converting to a for-profit business. Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit, but Musk separated himself from the AI firm over disagreements regarding how to move forward with the venture and eventually started a competing AI company called xAI. In addition to alleging that converting the charity to a profit business would breach its organizing purpose, Musk claims that his $45 million donation to fund the startup was contingent on OpenAI remaining a nonprofit organization. Chan Loui said the nonprofit's governance structure will be key to whether or not it carries out its mission. "We need to know more about ... who will appoint the board members of the nonprofit and how the nonprofit board will oversee the operations of the PBC [public benefit corporation]," she said, because those members will be tasked with making sure that the PBC developing artificial general intelligence safely and for the benefit of humanity. "The nonprofit board can't do its job without full transparency into the operations of the PBC." OpenAI did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance's request for comment. Altman told reporters, according to Bloomberg, that the structure announced Monday would still be attractive to investors. 'I think it just sets us up to be a more understandable structure, and to do the things that a company like ours has to do,' Altman said, according to Bloomberg. 'I won't pretend that it wouldn't maybe be easier if we were a fully normal company, but the mission comes first,' he added. 'We believe this is well over the bar of what we need to be able to fundraise.' Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
OpenAI reverses course, says its nonprofit will remain in control of its business operations
OpenAI has decided that its nonprofit division will retain control over its for-profit org, after the company initially announced that it planned to convert to a for-profit organization. According to the company, OpenAI's business wing, which has been under the nonprofit since 2019, will transition to a public benefit corporation (PBC). The nonprofit will control and also be a large shareholder of the PBC. "OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit, and is today overseen and controlled by that nonprofit," OpenAI Board Chairman Bret Taylor wrote in a statement on the company's blog. "Going forward, it will continue to be overseen and controlled by that nonprofit." OpenAI says that it made the decision "after hearing from civic leaders and engaging in constructive dialogue with the offices of the Attorney General of Delaware and the Attorney General of California." "We thank both offices and we look forward to continuing these important conversations to make sure OpenAI can continue to effectively pursue its mission," Taylor continued. OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, but it converted to a "capped-profit" in 2019, and was trying to restructure once more into a for-profit. When it transitioned to a capped-profit, OpenAI retained its nonprofit wing, which currently has a controlling stake in the organization's corporate arm. OpenAI had said that its conversion, which it argued was necessary to raise the capital needed to grow and expand its operations, would preserve its nonprofit and infuse it with additional resources to be spent on "charitable initiatives" in sectors such as healthcare, education, and science. In exchange for its controlling stake in OpenAI's enterprise, the nonprofit would reportedly stand to reap billions of dollars. Many disagreed with the proposal, including early OpenAI investor Elon Musk, who filed a lawsuit against OpenAI opposing the company's planned transition. Musk's complaint accuses the startup of abandoning its nonprofit mission, which aimed to ensure its AI research benefits all humanity. Musk had sought a preliminary injunction to halt OpenAI's conversion. A federal judge denied the request, but permitted the case to go to a jury trial in spring 2026. A group of ex-OpenAI employees and Encode, a nonprofit organization that co-sponsored California's ill-fated SB 1047 AI safety legislation, filed amicus briefs months ago in support of Musk's lawsuit. Separately, a cohort of organizations including nonprofits and labor groups like the California Teamsters petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta to stop OpenAI from becoming a for-profit, claiming the company had "failed to protect its charitable assets." Several Nobel laureates, law professors, and civil society organizations had also sent letters to Bonta and Delaware's attorney general, Kathy Jennings, requesting that they halt the startup's restructuring efforts. The stakes were high for OpenAI, which needed to complete its for-profit conversion by the end of this year or next or risk relinquishing some of the capital the company has raised in recent months, according to reports. It's unclear what consequences may befall OpenAI now that it's reversed course. In a letter to staff on Monday also published on OpenAI's blog, CEO Sam Altman said he thinks OpenAI may eventually require "trillions of dollars" to fulfill its goal of "[making the company's] services broadly available to all of humanity." "[OpenAI's nonprofit] will become a big shareholder in the PBC in an amount supported by independent financial advisors," wrote Altman. "[W]e are moving to a normal capital structure where everyone has stock. [...] We look forward to advancing the details of [our] plan in continued conversation with them, [our partner] Microsoft, and our newly appointed nonprofit commissioners." This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
