OpenAI has no plans to offer new board seats to external investors.

According to a BlockBeats report on November 29th citing sources from The Information, OpenAI has no plans to include representatives from external investors such as Microsoft in its recently restructured board of directors. This indicates that the new board will prioritize security practices rather than investor returns. While the new board has not yet been formally established and the situation may still change, it is reported that Microsoft and other shareholders, including Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Sequoia Capital, do not expect to have seats on OpenAI's new nine-member board. Before Altman reached a reinstatement agreement with the old board, Microsoft had considered obtaining a seat or observer seat in the new board, the latter of which has no voting rights. After Altman was fired, Microsoft was criticized by shareholders for its lack of insight into OpenAI's affairs, as the startup's business became increasingly important to Microsoft. However, legal experts say that investors like Microsoft who request seats on non-profit boards are likely to violate regulations of regulatory agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the California Attorney General. For example, the IRS warns that if a non-profit organization's board of directors is primarily composed of members who have business relationships with the organization, it may lose its tax-exempt status. California law requires non-profit board members to abstain from voting on any transactions in which they have a business interest, and the Attorney General recommends that these transactions be submitted for pre-approval by the state government, setting up potential legal pitfalls for the board, including shareholders.