The Financial Times reported on a series of significant transactions by OpenAI, which have made the company's equity structure more complex and left investors uncertain about future returns. According to these transactions, OpenAI has become the world's most valuable private company, valued at $500 billion. This achievement is mainly due to multi-billion-dollar contracts signed with chip manufacturers NVIDIA and AMD, which will help OpenAI deploy 1 trillion dollars of computing power in the coming years.
Image source note: The image was generated by AI, and the licensing service provider is Midjourney
However, sources said that OpenAI's ongoing need for funding means existing investors will face the risk of their shares being diluted in future fundraising rounds, including investors such as Microsoft, SoftBank, and Sequoia Capital. For OpenAI, negotiations with Microsoft are particularly critical, as it involves the company transitioning into a more traditional for-profit business structure. Such a transition is a necessary step before going public and is the best way for investors to achieve substantial returns.
Under the new equity structure, Microsoft will become the largest single shareholder of OpenAI, holding approximately 30% of the shares. At the same time, OpenAI's employees and its non-profit parent company will each hold nearly 30% of the shares. This means that, based on the current valuation, the value of these two portions of equity is close to $150 billion. Sources said that OpenAI's non-profit parent company will no longer have special shareholder rights but will have the right to nominate directors of the for-profit subsidiary. This change aims to reassure the attorneys general of California and Delaware to ensure the transformation does not harm OpenAI's charitable mission.
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman is expected to receive shares, but specific arrangements will be negotiated after the company completes the transformation. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, as an early investor, although he donated approximately $45 million to OpenAI, does not hold any equity. He is currently suing to try to stop OpenAI's transformation, believing that this move deviates from the company's original mission.
The final shareholding ratios and arrangements still depend on further negotiations between OpenAI, Microsoft, state attorneys general, and other investors.
Key points:
🔹 OpenAI has reached an important deal with Microsoft, with a valuation of $500 billion.
🔹 Microsoft will become the largest single shareholder, holding approximately 30% of the shares.
🔹 Investors face the risk of share dilution, and shareholder rights will be adjusted during the transformation.
