OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit research institute, dedicated to realizing an "artificial general intelligence" that benefits all of humanity.

In a December 2015 blog post introducing the company, its founders, including current CEO Sam Altman and his now bitterly-departed rival Elon Musk, said that to accomplish its goal, it would have to be "unconstrained by a need to generate financial return."

"Since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a positive human impact," the company wrote.

But just shy of a decade later, the ChatGPT maker looks dramatically different. The company has ridden a tidal wave of AI hype, opening itself up to exactly the kind of financial incentives it once attempted to shield itself from.

As CNBC reports, OpenAI is deep into t

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