November 1, 2025
Heist vibes or hype train?
OpenAI Moves to Complete Potentially the Largest Theft in Human History
From “for humanity” to “for shareholders”? Commenters say the halo just slipped
TLDR: OpenAI is becoming a public‑benefit company with uncapped investor profits while its nonprofit keeps 26% and a long‑shot warrant. Commenters are split between calling it a bait‑and‑switch and mocking the “theft” framing, with regulators’ green lights sparking outrage, memes, and calls for clawbacks
OpenAI says it’s “completed its recapitalization,” shifting to a public benefit company with uncapped investor profits while its nonprofit keeps 26% and a vague 15‑year “warrant” if the stock skyrockets. Critics like writer Zvi Mowshowitz call it a “historic heist,” accusing the company of stripping the nonprofit of control and value. Regulators in Delaware and California gave non‑objection signals, and that poured gasoline on the rage: commenters fumed that the refs just swallowed the whistle. One cynical chorus: the safety halo is gone, replaced by Wall Street swagger. “The cynics have been vindicated,” sighed one user, recalling Sam Altman’s utopian talk and now seeing pure profit play.
But the thread isn’t a monolith. A feisty minority rolled their eyes at the word “theft,” arguing you can’t steal hypothetical winnings—“It seems weird to say speculative gains were lost,” shot one skeptic. Others went full policy-punitive: tax back the donations, claw back perks, make it hurt. The meme brigade compared it to Ocean’s Eleven but with bylaws, while governance nerds tossed around the “everybody has a price” line to explain how oversight got outbid. Links flew to OpenAI’s blog “built to benefit everyone” here, the Delaware note here, and Altman’s Q&A tease here, each one fueling fresh snark and side‑eye
Key Points
- •OpenAI is set to become a Public Benefit Corporation, changing its capital and profit structure.
- •OpenAI’s announcement says the OpenAI Foundation will hold a 26% equity stake, claimed to be valued at about $130 billion.
- •A clause states the Foundation could receive additional equity if OpenAI Group’s share price increases more than tenfold after 15 years.
- •Delaware authorities issued a statement of no action, and California DOJ signed an MOU outlining conditions of non-objection.
- •The article references OpenAI’s prior capped-profit model and quotes Greg Brockman on returning most value beyond a fraction to the community.