The Great OpenAI Reorg
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OpenAI has completed the most significant corporate transformation in AI history. The company that started as a nonprofit research lab in 2015 with $137 million in donations has become a $500 billion enterprise with Microsoft as its largest shareholder.
But beneath the headlines about valuation and funding lies a deeper story: OpenAI’s organizational structure now mirrors that of Big Tech, not that of a research institution. Safety-focused talent has departed en masse while deal operators from Google, Amazon, Apple, and now former heads of government have arrived.
The hiring of former UK Chancellor George Osborne to lead global “Stargate” expansion signals a new phase: OpenAI isn’t just building a company—it’s building the infrastructure for a new global AI order. The question isn’t whether OpenAI becomes a trillion-dollar company—it’s whether the original mission survives the journey.