According to BlockBeats, on December 26, The Information reported that OpenAI CEO Altman hopes to transform this nonprofit-managed AI development company into a for-profit entity, and his biggest obstacle is Microsoft. The company has significant influence in this process, having committed over $13 billion to OpenAI.
Since October of last year, the two companies have been negotiating potential changes to OpenAI's structure, with discussions primarily focused on four aspects:
Microsoft's equity in the for-profit entity;
Will Microsoft continue to be the exclusive cloud service provider for OpenAI;
How long will Microsoft maintain the right to use OpenAI's intellectual property to meet its product needs;
Will Microsoft continue to take 20% from OpenAI's revenue;
It is currently unclear when OpenAI and Microsoft plan to complete this process, but both sides are moving quickly and face time pressure: if OpenAI fails to complete the transition within the next two years, recently funded investors can reclaim their money, along with 9% interest—totaling approximately $7.2 billion. Company leadership has told employees that OpenAI hopes to buy back some of their shares after the transition to profitability, so employees currently have ample reason to hope for a swift completion of this transformation. (Jin Shi)