Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, alleging the company abandoned the public-interest mission on which it was built. New research suggests Musk has a point, though the full picture is complex.
The article, OpenAI: Governance for Public Good or Private Gain? by Alexandra Andhov (University of Auckland) and Ian Murray (University of Western Australia), traces OpenAI’s development.
It follows the company from its origins as an incorporated non-profit charity, through a capped-profit hybrid model, to its most recent shift to a for-profit, for-purpose public benefit corporation.
When OpenAI was set up, Andhov says its non-profit status was designed to remove the profit motive from developing powerful AI, signalling to researchers, regulators and the public that safety and social benefit would take precedence over returns.
“Our paper analyses OpenAI’s trajectory from non-profit to possibly a really substantial IPO later this year and shows how their non-profit mission has eroded over time,” she says.
The paper finds safeguards were put in place at each stage to protect OpenAI’s purpose. Yet, those safeguards faced pressure from a small group of key funders, commercial relationships, and the need for capital. As a result, the researchers note a gradual ‘mission drift’: a shift away from OpenAI’s original purpose toward commercial priorities.
Read the full release and research paper: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/05/06/openai-s-evolution-examined-amid-musk-lawsuit.html