The main reason why OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) does not go public is that its management wants to maintain full control over the technology and avoid short-term shareholder pressure and regulatory requirements brought by going public, so that it can make decisions that are consistent with long-term goals when developing superintelligence.
The specific reasons are as follows:
1. Maintaining technical control
Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, has publicly stated that the company hopes to make some decisions that may be "strange" to public market investors when developing superintelligence. If it goes public, the company will need to face the short-term interests of shareholders, which may conflict with the long-term technical goals pursued by OpenAI.
2. Avoiding pressure from the public market
Altman is worried that after going public, the company may face litigation risks from Wall Street and shareholders, especially in terms of technology development paths and commercialization decisions. This pressure may limit OpenAI's freedom to innovate in the field of AI.
3. Unique corporate structure
OpenAI was originally a non-profit organization. Although it later transformed into a "capped-profit" company, its core goal is still to promote the safe and beneficial development of artificial intelligence. Going public could change this structure and affect the company's mission and values.
4. Adequate funding and clear strategy
OpenAI has already received a lot of financial support from investors such as Microsoft, and there is no urgent need for financing in the short term. In addition, the company's current strategic focus is on enterprise-level applications and the research and development of AGI (general artificial intelligence), rather than expanding its scale through going public.
5. Potential regulatory risks
With the rapid development of AI technology, regulatory pressure is gradually increasing worldwide. Altman has called for the establishment of a global unified AI regulatory agency to avoid the abuse of technology. In this context, going public may expose the company to more compliance and regulatory challenges.