Profit, Power, and the AI Playbook: What OpenAI’s Evolution Reveals

OpenAI was founded on a promise: build powerful AI that benefits humanity, not just shareholders. But as The Atlantic details in its sharp exposé, the organization’s evolution from nonprofit to profit-driven powerhouse is raising uncomfortable questions about transparency, mission drift, and market dominance.

The article outlines how OpenAI’s current structure—“capped-profit” in theory—has enabled a growing web of commercial entanglements. From exclusive licensing deals with Microsoft to internal tensions over how and when to release powerful models, the company’s dual identity is being tested. What was once an open research lab now operates more like a closed, competitive enterprise.

And this matters far beyond OpenAI.

For legal and policy professionals, it’s a glimpse into the governance challenges that come when AI development is concentrated in the hands of a few—especially when those hands are tied to complex corporate structures. There’s a growing call for greater transparency around AI model capabilities, training data, and commercial influence. But this piece also reminds us: when profit and safety collide, governance can’t be left to backroom negotiations or blog posts. It needs durable, enforceable frameworks.

The core tension isn’t just about one company’s ethics—it’s about whether the infrastructure of the future is being built in service of innovation, or in service of entrenchment.

This isn’t a tech story. It’s a power story. And the playbook is being written in real time.

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📖 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/openai-lock-in-profit/682538/