The company has also faced controversy over its treatment of departing employees, with aggressive tactics used to get employees to sign exit agreements affecting their stock holdings. Last month, OpenAI backtracked on a decision to make former employees choose between signing a non-disparagement agreement and keeping their vested equity. The company has also faced scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department over its influence on the AI industry. OpenAI has held three tender rounds to date, with sales limits for former employees being lower than for current employees.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI plans to allow stakeholders to sell a portion of their shares every year, but the company's restrictive approach has raised concerns among current and former employees about the startup's power to determine who participates.
- OpenAI has been valued at over $80 billion and many early employees are sitting on millions of dollars worth of equity, but with no IPO on the horizon, the only way for shareholders to realize any value is through secondary stock sales.
- There have been concerns about OpenAI's power to claw back vested equity, and the company has circulated a document detailing how it has conducted equity purchases in the past and how it plans to handle them in the future.
- OpenAI has faced controversy in the past, including antitrust investigations into Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia, and the sudden ousting and reinstatement of co-founder Sam Altman as CEO.