> The fundamental idea of OpenAI LP is that investors and employees can get a capped return if we succeed at our mission

Sorry I still don’t get it. If a private equity investor has shares and another investor wants to buy them off of him at 200x they can do that right? Are they obliged to give any excess returns to the non profit? Can’t they just sell the shares at 50x and then buy them back (perhaps through some other entity) to get around that trivially?

Or does this refer to return from dividents?

My guess is it likely has to do with dividends.

But if your returns from the stocks are capped at 100x your share value, an efficient market would mean you share value never grows 200x.

It's not just about that. Perhaps there are benefits in having control of the company that make the shares more valuable than just the profit would make it out to be. Perhaps there's prestige in owning these shares.