By MATT O’BRIEN and THALIA BEATY

After months spent pursuing a plan to convert itself into a for-profit business, OpenAI is reversing course and said Monday its nonprofit will continue to control the company that makes ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence products.

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“We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,” said CEO Sam Altman in a letter to employees.

Altman and the chair of OpenAI’s nonprofit board, Bret Taylor, said the board made the decision for the nonprofit to retain control of OpenAI. The nonprofit already has a for-profit arm, but that arm will be converted into a public benefit corporation “that has to consider the interests of both shareholders and the mission,” Taylor said.

However, Taylor declined to say Monday how large of an ownership stake the nonprofit will have in the new public benefit corporation. Altman said in a call with reporters that the nonprofit will choose the board members if the public benefit corporation.

Public benefit corporations were first created in Delaware in 2013 and other states have adopted the same or similar laws that require the companies to pursue not just profit but a social good. Public benefit corporations, which include Amalgamated Bank and the online education platform Coursera, need to define that social good, which can vary broadly, when they incorporate.

Altman said that converting from a limited liability company to a public benefit corporation “just sets up us to be a more understandable structure to do the things that a company of our scope has to do.”

FILE – Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, at Station F, during an event on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool, file)

“There’s so much more demand to use AI tools than we thought there was going to be,” Altman said. Getting access to more capital will make it easier for OpenAI to pursue mergers and acquisitions “and other normal things companies would do,” Altman said.

Altman said it would “maybe be easier” to raise money if OpenAI were a “fully normal company,” but given its mission, “we don’t want to be a fully normal company, and we believe this is well over the bar of what we need to be able to fundraise.”

“We’ve had plenty of investors who think OpenAI is a great business but don’t care about or don’t appreciate our mission, and, you know, we’re like happy not to have their money,” Altman said.

OpenAI’s co-founders, including Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, originally started it as a nonprofit research laboratory on a mission to safely build what’s known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, for humanity’s benefit. Nearly a decade later, OpenAI has reported its market value as $300 billion and counts 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT, its flagship product.

OpenAI first outlined plans last year to convert its core governance structure but faced a number of challenges. One is a lawsuit from Musk, who accuses the company and Altman of betraying the founding principles that led Musk to invest in the charity. A federal judge last week dismissed some of Musk’s claims and allowed others to proceed to a trial set for next year.

OpenAI also faced scrutiny from the top law enforcement officers in Delaware, where the company is incorporated, and California, where it operates out of a San Francisco headquarters. The California attorney general’s office said in a statement that it was reviewing the plan and, “This remains an ongoing matter — and we are in continued conversations with Open AI.”

The attorney general’s office in Delaware did not immediately return a request for comment.

A number of advocates, including former OpenAI employees and other charities, had petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, both Democrats, to use their authority to protect OpenAI’s charitable purpose and block its planned restructuring.

Some were concerned about what happens if the ChatGPT maker fulfills its ambition to build AI that outperforms humans, but is no longer accountable to its public mission to safeguard that technology from causing grievous harm.

Multiple other artificial intelligence companies have opted to incorporate as public benefit corporations, including Anthropic and xAI, Musk’s company. However, OpenAI would remain unique in that its public benefit corporation would still be controlled by the nonprofit’s board.

By JEFF AMY

ATLANTA (AP) — Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican governor, announced Monday that he’s not running for U.S. Senate in 2026 against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.

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Kemp, who will leave the governor’s chair in 2027 after eight years due to term limits, has long been at the top of the GOP’s wish list to challenge Ossoff, whom Republican leaders have made their biggest target in next year’s midterm elections. His decision not to run will likely result in a competitive primary among candidates who have never won a top statewide race.

“I spoke with President Trump and Senate leadership earlier today and expressed my commitment to work alongside them to ensure we have a strong Republican nominee who can win next November, and ultimately be a conservative voice in the US Senate who will put hardworking Georgians first,” Kemp said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who represents a district on Georgia’s coast, is itching to run and is likely to jump in. U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Rich McCormick and Insurance Commissioner John King could also be possibilities.

A number of top-tier Republicans appear to have excluded themselves by taking top positions in President Donald Trump’s administration, including former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, currently secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs; former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration; and former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, ambassador-designate to China.

A possible candidate with massive name recognition is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prolific fundraiser who may have gone as far as she can go in the House and was passed over for a position in the Trump administration. She has said she’s considering running for Senate or governor in 2026, but her entry into either race would likely prompt internal opposition from more traditional Republicans, including those aligned with Kemp.

National Republicans have already been advertising against Ossoff, who launched his reelection bid at a March rally where he proclaimed his defiance to Trump. He has tried to craft a role as a traditional senator who can work across the aisle and as a crusader against corruption and wrongdoing.

The election is likely to be closely contested and fantastically expensive. The twin Senate races in 2020, when Ossoff and Raphael Warnock narrowly won and flipped control of the body to Democrats, cost more than $900 million combined, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending. Warnock’s 2022 reelection over Republican Herschel Walker cost more than $470 million, OpenSecrets found.

The 61-year-old Kemp hesitated for months about entering the race, seemingly reluctant to become one of 100 senators after years of charting his own course in executive office. That’s especially true as Trump, who once regarded Kemp as an enemy, stands astride the Republican Party.

Kemp has harbored ambitions to run for president and had faced questions about whether it would be better to do so as a senator or to follow in the footsteps of fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter and run as a successful former governor. Losing a Senate race would probably extinguish such hopes, but staying out could leave the door open to run directly for the White House after he leaves office.

As a commercial Realtor raised in St. Paul, Scott Miller has seen the capital city’s downtown struggle with high office vacancies and other challenges. Miller has no illusions about the tight lending market, high interest rates and the uncertainties of the national economy.

Still, if there’s a site in his old hometown he sees as ripe for redevelopment, it’s the soon-to-be-shuttered WestRock paper recycling plant near Interstate 94 and Minnesota 280.

Where some see an industrial freight line leading into warehouse-like buildings, he sees opportunity.

“It’s a beautiful site, just beautiful,” said Miller, in a recent interview, pointing to its access to both freight rail and passenger light rail, the two highways and restaurants, a grocery store and workforce within walking distance. In additional to new industry, could the WestRock site someday host new luxury residences just off University Avenue? He wouldn’t rule it out.

“It is one of the best opportunities for St. Paul in decades,” said Dillon Donnelly, a former director with Donnelly Custom Manufacturing and workforce partnership manager with Hospitality Minnesota, a hotel and restaurant industry lobbying association. “My hope is there is some job density, rather than warehouse.”

‘Candidate for industrial redevelopment’

Smurfit WestRock, a global packaging company, informed nearly 200 workers last week it will close the paper recycling facility for good on June 30, ending an era that began with the plant’s opening in 1907.

Rather than mourn its departure, some business advocates call the plant’s closure and repositioning overdue, given that its 25 to 40 acres could realistically accommodate far more than 189 employees in an outdated industrial facility. The plant, which shed nearly half its workers in 2022, once employed more than 10 times its current number.

“It is the perfect candidate for industrial redevelopment,” said Todd Hurley, president and chief executive officer of the St. Paul Port Authority, the city’s redevelopment partner.

“WestRock closing its operations is a huge loss in St. Paul, but we also think it’s a massive opportunity in St. Paul,” Hurley said. “This was coming. WestRock shrunk its operations over the years. … This site lends itself to several hundred more jobs.”

‘The things that are industry are looking for’

Efforts to reach WestRock for comment were not immediately successful this week.

Before taking a reporter’s call on Friday, Hurley said he had just gotten off the phone with brokers from CBRE, a global real estate firm, whose interests were piqued. The core site at 2250 Wabash Ave. has 25 acres that produce about $200,000 in property taxes annually, though Smurfit WestRock also owns an additional 15 acres of underutilized land in the parcels around the plant, which are also zoned for light-to-medium industry. That brings total annual property taxes to about $300,000, Hurley said.

“In our experience, that number is too low,” said Hurley, noting the site already offers “the things that light industry are looking for,” like transportation access. “I’m thinking the opportunities are bigger than the 25 acres.”

Hurley said the Port Authority, which has purchased challenged properties in the past to reposition them for the private sector, would likely take a more advisory role with the WestRock location and steer potential developers to environmental clean-up grants, energy efficiency incentives and other types of support. “Acquiring the site is a possibility, but right now we’re not here to compete with the private sector,” he said. “We’re here to complement it. The Port Authority is really a buyer of last resort.”

Dwindling number of employees over the years

The plant — which turned paper into cardboard, corrugated paper and coated recycled boards — was known for most of the past century as Waldorf Paper Products Co., RockTenn and by other names.

By 1994, Waldorf was producing more than 400,000 tons of recycled paperboard annually, supplying printed boxes to companies like Procter & Gamble Co., Hormel Foods and General Mills Inc. Back then, the company had about 2,200 employees and was the fifth-largest privately-held company in Minnesota.

The employee numbers at the central plant have since dwindled to less than a tenth of that size, with the latest major downsizing occurring in 2022, when more than 130 of 360 workers were let go. At the time, two production lines dropped down to one.

The factory, which had once printed and folded cardboard, ended its run of corrugated paper but retained its operations dedicated to producing coated recycled boards.

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By STEPHEN WHYNO

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 2027 NFL draft is heading to the nation’s capital on the National Mall, President Donald Trump said Monday, bringing the widely popular event back to Washington for the first time in more than eight decades.

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After word of Washington getting the draft two years from now surfaced Sunday night, Trump made the formal announcement in the Oval Office flanked by Commissioner Roger Goodell, Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“I don’t think there’s ever been anything like that,” Trump said. “It’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be something that nobody else will ever be able to duplicate that, I don’t suspect. It’s very exciting.”

It is the latest off-field victory for the Commanders, who a week ago reached an agreement with the D.C. government to build a new home on the old RFK Stadium site, pending council approval. Trump also endorsed that plan in his remarks, saying, “I don’t think there is a better site anywhere in the world.”

Under former owner Dan Snyder, the team previously tried multiple times to land the draft and was unsuccessful. Now, it’ll happen behind the team’s new Harris-led ownership group, which bought the Commanders from Snyder in 2023.

“What a great day for Washington,” Harris said. “I believe we’ll get over a million people, and it’s going to be an amazing day and it’ll showcase what Washington’s all about.”

Washington last hosted the draft in 1941 at the Willard Hotel.

“We believe in investing in sports because they have helped us transform neighborhoods, and the NFL bringing this event to the nation’s capital will help us fill hotel rooms, our restaurants,” Bowser said. “Americans from all 50 states will come to their nation’s capital and enjoy our beautiful city and museums.”

Green Bay, the NFL’s smallest market, hosted the most recent draft in late April outside historic Lambeau Field. The NFL announced a crowd of 600,000 fans attended over the three days.

“The draft has really become one of the great entertainment and sports events,” Goodell said, trumpeting the popularity of the draft in recent years. “It will not just be an event. It will be something that will show the world how far the nation’s capital has come and where it’s going.”

The NFL draft used to be a fixture at Radio City Music Hall in New York and has become an even bigger hit since it hit the road in 2015. Chicago hosted the draft in 2015 and ‘16. Philadelphia had it in ’17, followed by Dallas and Nashville.

Goodell announced the picks from his house in 2020 during the pandemic. It went to Cleveland in 2021 followed by Las Vegas, Kansas City and Detroit. A record crowd of 750,000 attended Detroit’s draft in 2024. Pittsburgh will host next year.

The draft in Washington in ‘27 will mark the third anniversary of the franchise-altering selection of quarterback Jayden Daniels with the second pick. The Commanders made the playoffs and reached the NFC championship game in Daniels’ rookie year and look to be a Super Bowl contender for years to come.

“I have to say that Josh had a very good draft a short while ago,” Trump said. “You have a very good quarterback — a great quarterback, I think.”

Success on the field under Harris-hired general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn has made Washington a premier market again, decades after the organization’s glory days that included three Super Bowl championships.

After the news conference last week unveiling plans to build a 65,000-seat stadium, Goodell said the turnaround from losing to winning is “immeasurable in so many ways.”

“This market is obviously critical,” Goodell said. “To be able to have a franchise here that everybody here is proud of that’s gotten back on the football field in a positive way and now to have a stadium that brings their team back into D.C., I think that’s a really big step and something that’s going to be great for the NFL, too.”

AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed from Tampa, Florida.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL