Mozilla president Mark Surman is quietly organizing a challenge to some of the most powerful artificial intelligence companies in the world—most of them based more than 2,300 miles away in Silicon Valley.
Surman, 56, leads Mozilla, the nonprofit best known for the Firefox browser and its long-standing mission to keep the internet open and accessible. Having previously taken on Microsoft in the browser wars of the early 2000s, followed by Apple and Google in later years, Mozilla is no stranger to operating as an underdog. Now, Surman believes the next defining battle is over who controls the future of AI.
Rather than going it alone, Surman is assembling what he describes as “a rebel alliance of sorts”—a loose coalition of startups, developers, and public-interest technologists working to make AI more open, accountable, and trustworthy, while reducing dependence on dominant players such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
“It’s that spirit that a bunch of people are banding together to create something good in the world and take on this thing that threatens us,” Surman told CNBC in an interview. “It’s super corny, but people totally get it.”
At the center of Mozilla’s strategy is its roughly $1.4 billion in financial reserves, which the organization plans to deploy in support of mission-driven technology companies and nonprofits, including its own initiatives. According to a report released Tuesday, Mozilla aims to back projects that promote transparency and responsible AI development, offering a counterweight to companies growing at unprecedented speed with relatively limited guardrails.
Financially, the challenge is steep. Mozilla launched Mozilla Ventures in 2022 with an initial commitment of $35 million for early-stage investments and is now exploring the possibility of raising additional capital. By comparison, OpenAI has raised more than $60 billion from global investors, while Anthropic has secured over $30 billion, according to PitchBook. Tech giants such as Google and Meta continue to spend billions recruiting AI talent and tens of billions annually on massive data center infrastructure.
Mozilla’s push reflects a broader unease within the AI community over how power is consolidating. OpenAI, founded in 2015 as a nonprofit with a mission to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return,” has since evolved into a commercial juggernaut. The launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 accelerated that shift, propelling the company to extraordinary growth.
Today, OpenAI carries a valuation of $500 billion and completed a recapitalization in October that solidified its future as a for-profit entity operating under a nonprofit umbrella. While Mozilla has a similar structural setup, Surman argues that the similarities largely stop there. Only a handful of OpenAI’s original founders, including CEO Sam Altman, remain, and several former employees have publicly criticized what they describe as prioritizing growth over safety.
One of the most vocal critics has been co-founder Elon Musk, who left OpenAI in 2018, launched rival company xAI in 2023, and later sued OpenAI and Altman for alleged breach of contract and financial damages. OpenAI has characterized Musk’s actions as part of a “campaign of harassment,” with the case expected to go to trial in April. OpenAI declined to comment, while xAI responded to CNBC with an automated message.
Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives and researchers who disagreed with OpenAI’s trajectory, has positioned itself as more safety-focused. Still, it has grown rapidly on the commercial front, reaching a valuation of $350 billion.
For Surman and Mozilla, these developments underscore the urgency of building alternatives. By rallying a network of aligned partners and investing its capital behind ethical AI practices, Mozilla hopes to reassert the values of openness and public trust at a time when artificial intelligence is increasingly shaped by a handful of powerful players.
