xAI—Secretly dropped public benefit corporation status while claiming PBC status in court
xAI quietly amended its corporate charter in May 2024 to terminate its status as a public benefit corporation, but continued representing itself as a PBC in court as late as May 2025 while fighting OpenAI. The company never delivered annual reports on environmental and social impact that would be expected from a PBC. Corporate law expert Michal Barzuza noted Nevada's laws provide 'less litigation, but it also means less to no accountability.'
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.885 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Secretly dropped public benefit corporation status while claiming PBC status in court
xAI quietly amended its corporate charter in May 2024 to terminate its status as a public benefit corporation, but continued representing itself as a PBC in court as late as May 2025 while fighting OpenAI. The company never delivered annual reports on environmental and social impact that would be expected from a PBC. Corporate law expert Michal Barzuza noted Nevada's laws provide 'less litigation, but it also means less to no accountability.'