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At the 2025 World Governments Summit, Elon Musk criticised OpenAI for abandoning its nonprofit roots. He said, “OpenAI is going too far by removing its not-for-profit objective. I funded it entirely when it started, nearly $50 million, expecting it to be open source and nonprofit.”
How it started
OpenAI was founded in 2015 with a nonprofit mission. But by 2017, Musk wanted to shift to a for-profit model—on his terms. According to the company, Musk demanded to be CEO, hold 50-60% equity, and control the board.
When OpenAI rejected his demands, he…
