Microsoft valuation surpasses USD4t as OpenAI completes restructuring
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The news: OpenAI has completed its recapitalisation, bolstering its structure as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit business and pushing its largest external shareholder, Microsoft, to a USD4 trillion ($6.1 trillion) market capitalisation.
The numbers: The AI giant said that following the recapitalisation, Microsoft will receive a 27% ownership stake in OpenAI, valued at approximately USD135 billion. Microsoft will also have access to the AI startup’s technology until 2032, including models that achieved the benchmark of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
47% of the for-profit, OpenAI Group PBC (public benefit corporation) is held by current and former employees and investors.
Excluding the impact of OpenAI’s recent funding rounds, Microsoft held a 32.5% stake on an as-converted basis in the OpenAI for-profit.
OpenAI said the equity held by the nonprofit arm, the OpenAI Foundation, was currently valued at approximately USD130 billion.
The news ushed Microsoft shares up by as much as 4% at the start of trading in New York on Tuesday (12:30am AEDT), giving Microsoft a market capitalisation of USD4.1 trillion.
The context: OpenAI’s chair Bret Taylor said in a blog post on Tuesday that the nonprofit now holds equity in the for-profit currently valued at approximately USD130 billion, “making it one of the best resourced philanthropic organizations ever.”
"OpenAI has completed its recapitalization, simplifying its corporate structure. The nonprofit remains in control of the for-profit, and now has a direct path to major resources before AGI arrives."
He wrote that The OpenAI Foundation will initially focus on a USD25 billion commitment across two areas: Health and curing diseases and technical solutions to AI resilience.
“The more OpenAI succeeds as a company, the more the non-profit’s equity stake will be worth, which the non-profit will use to fund its philanthropic work,” OpenAI said in a blog post.
The sources: OpenAI press release, OpenAI blog post
