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by tptacek 5 hours ago
Financial Times:

> A person familiar with the matter said the large majority of that jump reflected a non-cash accounting charge linked to the company’s previous structure rather than its underlying operations.

> Before OpenAI’s switch late last year to become a public benefit corporation, investors in the company received convertible interest rights rather than conventional equity. Under US accounting rules, those interests were treated as liabilities and periodically revalued as the company’s valuation increased.

> As OpenAI’s worth rose, the increased value of those investor rights created a roughly $30bn charge, added the person. The charge is not expected to recur following the restructuring, they said.

> Stripping out the charge and other non-cash expenses, such as stock-based compensation of staff and computing credits from Microsoft, OpenAI’s losses were $8bn, according to the person.

https://archive.is/wIzZV#selection-1887.0-1890.0

2 comments

As to why those are required to be treated as liabilities, the primary point of accounting rules is to ensure the accurate valuation of the business to potential purchasers. Someone who would buy the business before those interests converted would see their ownership get diluted, thus it reduces the value of the business to a prospective buyer, thus an accounting of their books must list it as a liability.

It's not an issue if you're tracking the cash flow of the business or it's overall viability regardless of ownership structure. These book losses are just recognizing that the business has a higher market value so their ownership dilution commitments reduce the present value of the company more.

numbers look better than I thought. i think openai is going to make it