On Aug. 30, OpenAI was in talks to change its corporate structure to make it more beneficial to investors, as OpenAI pushes ahead with billions of dollars in funding in hopes of maintaining its lead over other rivals such as Google in the AI space.

OpenAI has discussed restructuring with investors, and one option OpenAI is considering removing the existing profit cap for investors in for-profit subsidiaries. While no final form has yet been agreed, OpenAI may make the company more attractive to financial backers by seeking to simplify the company's currently complex nonprofit structure.

OpenAI may remove the profit cap for investors

In fact, OpenAI's CEO, Sam · Altman, has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the company's complex structure. In June last year, when asked whether OpenAI would go public, Altman said: "I don't want to be sued by the open market and Wall Street, so the answer is no, and we're not very interested in that." He went on to explain: "We have a very unique structure that includes a cap on profits. ”

It is understood that OpenAI has not yet made a final decision on whether to adjust its structure. One possible option would be to remove the profit cap on existing investors in its for-profit subsidiary.

Currently, OpenAI offers shares to investors through its for-profit subsidiary, which is governed by its nonprofit board of directors. OpenAI says the board's main beneficiaries are all of humanity, not OpenAI's investors.

Investors are required to sign an operating agreement when investing in OpenAI, which stipulates that any investment in OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary should be considered a donation nature, meaning that OpenAI may never be profitable.

Despite such regulations, this has not hindered investment, and OpenAI has received a $13 billion investment from Microsoft.

OpenAI is considering restructuring and planning new financing

While OpenAI has not yet made a final decision with investors on whether to change its structure, one option the company is considering is to remove the existing profit cap for for-profit subsidiary investors. This potential restructuring comes at a time when OpenAI is negotiating a new multibillion-dollar funding round involving venture capital firm Thrive Capital plans to lead and invest $1 billion. According to The OpenAI's annualized revenue has doubled to $3.4 billion since the end of 2023, according to Information. OpenAI may use this performance to attract investors to this round of funding.

值得注意的是，苹果和英伟达正在首次洽谈参与OpenAI的投资。如果此次融资成功，OpenAI将成为同时获得全球三大科技巨头（微软、苹果、英伟达）财务支持的公司。

如果融资成功，OpenAI的估值将超过1000亿美元，这超过了互联网支付公司Stripe在2021年私募融资中达到的950亿美元估值。目前，只有少数几家私营初创公司的估值超过OpenAI，包括字节跳动和SpaceX。

｜持续融资背后的“烧钱”困境

全球范围内，生成式人工智能公司之间的融资竞赛依然激烈。OpenAI作为AI领域中的领先企业，其持续获得融资不仅反映了投资者对其价值的认可，也体现了市场对于错过优质投资机会的恐惧（FOMO）。然而，这也部分源于许多AI初创公司在构建盈利模式上面临的挑战，不得不依赖外部资本来维持运营。

大模型的训练需要巨大的资金投入，主要包括推理成本、训练成本和人工成本。据The Information报道，OpenAI每天仅为了维持ChatGPT的服务就需要支付大约70万美元的服务器租赁费，这使得其年度推理成本接近40亿美元。训练成本主要用于数据处理，估计为30亿美元。此外，OpenAI每年还需要花费约15亿美元来吸引和保留顶尖AI人才。

Combined, these expenses add up to a total annual cost of about $8.5 billion, far exceeding that of other competitors. The Information noted that "OpenAI's cash flow could be depleted in the next year".

While OpenAI's financial status is not known due to its unlisted status, OpenAI currently has about 9.88 million monthly paying users and $3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue, according to research from FutureSearch. The majority of this revenue (84%) comes from ChatGPT's paying users, while the remaining small portion is contributed by API services. Earlier this year, OpenAI's CEO revealed that the company's annual revenue had doubled to $3.4 billion, up from just $1.6 billion at the end of last year.

Despite the significant increase in revenue, OpenAI still faces a large financial deficit and expects a loss of $5 billion in 2024. As OpenAI further develops more sophisticated AI models, its spending is expected to outpace revenue growth. As a result, OpenAI must continue to look for new investments to ensure its leadership in the generative AI space.