This is a really fascinating article that explains how the corporate structure Altman used to set up the OpenAI’s governance will have in a sense failed if Microsoft is able to use its leverage to reinstate him.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
OpenAI commands a soaring valuation thanks to its tender offers with venture capital firms, but this is just paper money based on share sales from existing employees, founders, and earlier investors.
(Technically, these were profit participation agreements; OpenAI, owing to its highly unusual capped-profit structure, doesn’t offer traditional equity or stock options.)
To make matters worse, OpenAI has been on a hiring spree all year, with reports that it has been offering the sort of seven-figure pay packages typical of professional athletes to lure top AI researchers away from Google, Meta, and other rival firms.
Nadella could threaten to cut off OpenAI’s access to computing power and suspend delivery of its next instalment of committed cash unless Altman is restored as CEO.
He realized that raising money from donors, who only get a tax write-off for their contributions, was extremely inefficient compared to venture capital, where investors expect a return.
It would be the ultimate irony if the flaws of the very structure Altman designed wind up saving his job at CEO and allowing him to outmaneuver the board that he established to safeguard AGI.
The original article contains 1,880 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 90%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
