OpenAI’s board is locked in complex negotiations to become a for-profit company, struggling to determine the price of Microsoft’s stake in the start-up while holding talks to value its newly formed charitable arm at $30bn.

The ChatGPT-maker, which is overseen by its not-for-profit board, has been discussing a restructuring since September that would split the start-up in two. Its charitable arm, tasked with OpenAI’s original mission of “benefiting humanity”, would be given a stake in the newly formed public benefit corporation (PBC). 

One obstacle to the conversion has been determining how much equity the start-up’s biggest backer, Microsoft, would hold in the PBC, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Other considerations, such as how much equity chief executive Sam Altman will be granted in the new company, must also be ironed out.