OpenAI restructures as public benefit corporation, Microsoft secures 27% stake

OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, has converted its organizational structure into a public benefit corporation, a shift designed to give the company greater flexibility to raise capital as it scales its artificial intelligence ambitions.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the restructuring grants Microsoft a 27% stake in the new entity, valued at roughly $135 billion. The agreement also extends Microsoft’s access to OpenAI’s core technologies for the next seven years.

As part of the deal, OpenAI has committed to spending $250 billion on Microsoft’s Azure cloud services over the lifetime of the partnership, further solidifying the companies’ strategic and financial interdependence.

A public benefit corporation remains a for-profit entity, allowing it to raise capital, issue equity and generate returns for investors.

In other words, the restructuring doesn’t defuse Elon Musk’s criticism of OpenAI. The billionaire has argued that the company betrayed its founding mission by shifting away from its nonprofit roots to pursue commercial partnerships and profits.

Related: OpenAI launches browser with a brain powered by agentic AI

ChatGPT’s reach extends to AI trading as rivals gain ground

ChatGPT remains the world’s most widely used large language model, with an estimated 800 million weekly active users, according to industry data.

The model’s capabilities extend far beyond conversation, as it’s increasingly being integrated into AI-powered trading bots for both cryptocurrency and traditional stock markets. These bots leverage ChatGPT to analyze market data, learn from trading patterns and refine their strategies in real time, according to Cointelegraph.

Recently, researchers compared the performance of several large language models trained for crypto trading. The study found that Grok, developed by X, and DeepSeek, a leading Chinese AI model, outperformed ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in simulated crypto trading.

The experiment began with each bot trading an initial $200 in capital, later scaling up to $10,000 per model, with all transactions executed on Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange.

Related: Amazon AWS outage knocks Coinbase mobile app offline, Robinhood disrupted