Sam Altman disclosed fresh details about his split with Elon Musk at OpenAI, claiming the nonprofit structure was "left for dead" after Musk's departure. The conflict centers on Musk's accusation that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman attempted to "steal a charity" by converting OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity.
Altman's comments emerge as tensions between the two escalate. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab but departed the board in 2018. The organization later created OpenAI LP, a capped-profit subsidiary, to attract venture capital while maintaining its nonprofit parent structure. Musk has argued this hybrid model betrayed OpenAI's original mission and charitable intent.
According to Altman, the nonprofit arm was essentially abandoned after Musk left, with resources and focus shifting to the for-profit subsidiary. This structure allowed OpenAI to raise billions in funding from investors including Microsoft, which committed up to $13 billion to the venture. The nonprofit retained minimal operational role while the LP generated the revenue and developed products like ChatGPT.
Musk's lawsuit, filed in November 2024, accuses Altman and Brockman of breaching fiduciary duties and converting the charity for personal gain. He seeks to force OpenAI to return to its nonprofit-only structure or face dissolution.
Altman's defense suggests the nonprofit structure became impractical for scaling AI research at the pace and cost required by the industry. Building frontier AI models demands billions in capital and computational resources. A purely nonprofit model, under this logic, cannot sustain that level of investment.
The dispute highlights a fundamental tension in the AI industry. Startups often adopt nonprofit frames to build credibility and attract mission-driven talent, but