Latest news with #AmalgamatedBank
Globe and Mail
10-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Amalgamated Bank Advances Climate Leadership with C-PACE Financing for 205kW Solar Energy and Roofing Project in New Bedford
NEW BEDFORD, Mass., June 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amalgamated Bank, a subsidiary of Amalgamated Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: AMAL), today announced the successful closing of a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy ("C-PACE") financing under the PACE Massachusetts Program using Allectrify's FASTPACE Platform. The C-PACE financing will fund a 205kW (kilowatts) DC (Direct current) solar PV (PhotoVoltaic) installation and associated roofing upgrades at an industrial building located in the Port of New Bedford. The property is owned and operated by Marder Seafood; a trusted leader in premium, sustainably sourced seafood in the area for more than 50 years. Amalgamated Bank, which opened its downtown Boston Commercial Banking office in 2020, invests nearly 40% of its total lending portfolio in climate protection solutions. This financing further reflects the Bank's climate leadership and focus on decarbonization and renewable energy. The C-PACE closing showcases how clean energy and C-PACE financing can support key regional industries, drive investments in New England commercial building stock, and lower energy costs for industrial end-users. The project will drive over $1.9 million in lifetime energy cost savings at the property. C-PACE financing supports long-term, competitive financing for commercial property improvements for energy efficiency, renewable energy, resiliency, and water conservation. The project represents the fourth financing closed to date under the Massachusetts C-PACE Program since its launch in 2020. Amalgamated Bank is a leader in deploying C-PACE capital, and its partnership with Allectrify enables efficient closing for projects of all sizes. 'With more than $1.2 billion in PACE assets in our investment portfolio, we are proud to lead the industry in providing solutions that empower borrowers to implement proven energy-savings strategies in commercial properties,' said Mark Walsh, New England Regional Manager & Senior Vice President at Amalgamated Bank. 'Through our ongoing partnership with Allectrify, we look forward to executing even more C-PACE deals that drive sustainable progress in Boston and beyond.' This $1.3 million C-PACE financing represents an innovative approach to green capital deployment. C-PACE makes capital available to a broader set of property owners who seek to make energy efficiency and other building energy improvements. 'This transaction is a prime example of Amalgamated Bank's commitment to putting climate solutions into practice, in this case supporting a commercial solar project at an industrial property serving a classic New England industry,' said Colin Bishopp, Chief Executive Officer of Allectrify. 'We are pleased to see this project closed on Allectrify's FASTPACE platform which enables efficient C-PACE execution in programs across the country.' About Amalgamated Bank: Amalgamated Bank, the wholly owned banking subsidiary of Amalgamated Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: AMAL), is a mission-driven full-service commercial bank and a chartered trust company with a combined network branches in New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Boston. Amalgamated Bank provides commercial and retail banking products, investment management and trust and custody services, and lending services. Since their founding in 1923, Amalgamated Bank is diligent in fulfilling their mission to be America's socially responsible bank, empowering organizations and individuals to advance positive change. The businesses that Amalgamated Bank focuses on are generally mission aligned with our core values, including sustainable companies, clean energy, nonprofits, and B Corporations. About Allectrify, PBC: C-PACE made simple for lenders and borrowers. Allectrify's FASTPACE platform enables banks, credit unions, CDFIs and non-bank lenders to offer C-PACE financing quickly and easily, at no cost to the lender and with reduced transaction costs for borrowers. Through Allectrify's network of FASTPACE lenders, borrowers can access C-PACE financing for projects of all sizes. Media Contacts Ayele Ajavon Head of Communications Amalgamated Bank 929-979-5811 media@ Lainie Rowland Allectrify 973-908-9304 lainie@
Associated Press
04-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Amalgamated Bank Joins Nearly $1 Billion Aggregate Financing with Greenbacker's 674 MW Cider Solar Farm, Powering New York's Largest Solar Project to Date
NEW YORK, June 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amalgamated Bank, a subsidiary of Amalgamated Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: AMAL), today announced the successful closing of a $15 million commitment as part of a nearly $1 billion aggregate financing to support the construction and operation of Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC's ('Greenbacker') utility-scale 674 MWdc (megawatts of direct current) 'Cider' solar farm, the largest solar project in New York State. Cider is located on approximately 2,500 acres in Genesee County, New York, the state where both Greenbacker and Amalgamated Bank are headquartered. Greenbacker broke ground on the solar project—its largest to date—in late 2024, and commenced major construction activities at the site in spring 2025. 'The Cider project and associated financing, including the new partnership with Amalgamated Bank, underscores Greenbacker's commitment to building a more resilient energy system in New York,' said Carl Weatherley-White, Greenbacker's interim Chief Financial Officer. 'Together we are driving forward a sustainable future that delivers affordable, homegrown, clean power and meaningful economic benefits to local communities.' Cider's construction is expected to support hundreds of clean energy jobs. The project is slated to enter commercial operation by the end of 2026, when it is projected to generate enough clean electricity to power over 120,000 New York homes annually. 'We are proud to partner with Greenbacker on the Cider project, a landmark achievement for renewable energy in New York,' said Sam Brown, Chief Banking Officer at Amalgamated Bank. 'This project stands as a testament to our collective mission to deliver impactful, scalable clean energy solutions. Additionally, Greenbacker's dedication to partnering with local organized labor further underscores our unwavering support for unions and our commitment to fostering strong, sustainable communities.' Greenbacker's portfolio has produced over 12 million megawatt - hours of clean energy and abated more than 8 million metric tons of carbon since 2016, reinforcing its commitment to energy transition investments across the country. About Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC is a publicly reporting, non-traded limited liability sustainable infrastructure company that both acquires and manages income-producing renewable energy and other energy-related businesses, including solar and wind farms, and provides asset management services to other renewable energy investment vehicles. We seek to acquire and operate high-quality projects that sell clean power under long-term contracts to high-creditworthy counterparties such as utilities, municipalities, and corporations. We are long-term owner-operators, who strive to be good stewards of the land and responsible members of the communities in which we operate. Greenbacker conducts its asset management business through its wholly owned subsidiary, Greenbacker Capital Management, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. We believe our focus on power production and asset management creates value that we can then pass on to our shareholders—while facilitating the transition toward a clean energy future. For more information, please visit About Amalgamated Bank: Amalgamated Bank, the wholly owned banking subsidiary of Amalgamated Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: AMAL), is a mission-driven New York-based full-service commercial bank and a chartered trust company with a combined network branches in New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Boston. Amalgamated Bank provides commercial and retail banking products, investment management and trust and custody services, and lending services. Since their founding in 1923, Amalgamated Bank is diligent in fulfilling their mission to be America's socially responsible bank, empowering organizations and individuals to advance positive change. The businesses that Amalgamated Bank focus' on are generally mission aligned with our core values, including sustainable companies, clean energy, nonprofits, and B Corporations. Media Contacts: Chris Larson Media Communications Greenbacker 646.569.9532 [email protected] Ayele Ajavon Head of Communication Amalgamated Bank 929.979.5811 [email protected]
Globe and Mail
05-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
OpenAI reverses course and says its nonprofit will continue to control its business
After months of pursuing a plan to convert itself into a for-profit business, OpenAI is reversing course and said Monday its nonprofit will continue to control the company that makes ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence products. 'We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,' said CEO Sam Altman in a letter to employees. Altman and the chair of OpenAI's nonprofit board, Bret Taylor, said the board made the decision for the nonprofit to retain control of OpenAI but is proposing another way to grow its business. As part of what Taylor described as a 'recapitalization,' the nonprofit's existing for-profit arm will convert into a public benefit corporation 'that has to consider the interests of both shareholders and the mission." Shareholders will also receive stock and a cap on profit for some investors will be lifted, as part of the new plan. Altman said the changes would make it easier for the for-profit to behave more like a normal company. Taylor declined to say Monday how large of an ownership stake the nonprofit will have in the new public benefit corporation. He said in a call with reporters that the nonprofit will choose the board members of the public benefit corporation and, at first, they will likely be the same people who now sit on OpenAI's nonprofit board. Public benefit corporations were first created in Delaware in 2013 and other states have adopted the same or similar laws that require the companies to pursue not just profit but a social good. Public benefit corporations, which include Amalgamated Bank and the online education platform Coursera, need to define that social good, which can vary broadly, when they incorporate. Altman said that converting from a limited liability company to a public benefit corporation 'just sets us up to be a more understandable structure to do the things that a company of our scope has to do.' 'There's so much more demand to use AI tools than we thought there was going to be,' Altman said. Getting access to more capital will make it easier for OpenAI to pursue mergers and acquisitions 'and other normal things companies would do,' Altman said. OpenAI's co-founders, including Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, originally started it as a nonprofit research laboratory on a mission to safely build what's known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, for humanity's benefit. Nearly a decade later, OpenAI has reported its market value as $300 billion and counts 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT, its flagship product. OpenAI first outlined plans last year to convert its core governance structure but faced a number of challenges. One is a lawsuit from Musk, who accuses the company and Altman of betraying the founding principles that led Musk to invest in the charity and tried to block the conversion to a for-profit. A federal judge last week dismissed some of Musk's claims and allowed others to proceed to a trial set for next year. OpenAI also faced scrutiny from the top law enforcement officers in Delaware, where the company is incorporated, and California, where it operates out of a San Francisco headquarters. The California attorney general's office said in a statement that it was reviewing the plan and, 'This remains an ongoing matter — and we are in continued conversations with Open AI.' The attorney general's office in Delaware did not immediately return a request for comment. A number of advocates, including former OpenAI employees and other charities, had petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, both Democrats, to use their authority to protect OpenAI's charitable purpose and block its planned restructuring. Some, including AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, who won a Nobel Prize last year, were concerned about what happens if the ChatGPT maker fulfills its ambition to build AI that outperforms humans, but is no longer accountable to its public mission to safeguard that technology from causing grievous harm. Multiple other artificial intelligence companies have opted to incorporate as public benefit corporations, including Anthropic and xAI, Musk's company. However, OpenAI would remain unique in that its public benefit corporation would still be controlled by the nonprofit's board. Altman said it would 'maybe be easier' to raise money if OpenAI were a 'fully normal company,' but given its mission, 'we don't want to be a fully normal company, and we believe this is well over the bar of what we need to be able to fundraise.' Altman said he still expects a large investment from Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group, which in February announced plans to set up a joint company with OpenAI to push AI services. The company's biggest investor over the past several years has been Microsoft, which declined to comment Monday. Page Hedley, a former OpenAI employee who led a petition to halt the for-profit conversion, said he was pleased that OpenAI was listening to the concerns of civil society leaders but remained concerned about the details. 'The charitable mission is about ensuring this technology benefits the public and not shareholders,' said Hedley, a former policy and ethics adviser at OpenAI, in an interview. 'The premise of OpenAI's founding was that those interests might diverge significantly in the development, ownership or control of the technology. That's what's at stake.' A coalition of California-based charities on Monday renewed its call for California's attorney general to investigate and questioned whether OpenAI's planned new business structure would carry out its charitable mission. 'If OpenAI is truly committed to benefiting humanity, it should transfer its charitable assets over to an independent public trust completely separate from any for-profit interests,' said a statement from Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. Rose Chan Loui, a nonprofit tax attorney who has studied OpenAI's structure, said any change would need to allow the nonprofit to maintain control over the development of the technology. 'If they're not the majority shareholder, the control would have to be given through outsized voting rights on specific issues,' said Chan Loui, who is the executive director of the Lowell Milken Center on Philanthropy and Nonprofits at UCLA Law. That is possible but may frustrate investors who want to exercise their rights to influence the direction of the company.
Chicago Tribune
05-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
OpenAI reverses course, says nonprofit will remain in control of company
After months spent pursuing a plan to convert itself into a for-profit business, OpenAI is reversing course and said Monday that its nonprofit will continue to control the company that makes ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence products. 'We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,' said CEO Sam Altman in a letter to employees. Altman and the chair of OpenAI's nonprofit board, Bret Taylor, said the board made the decision for the nonprofit to retain control of OpenAI. The nonprofit already has a for-profit arm, but that arm will be converted into a public benefit corporation 'that has to consider the interests of both shareholders and the mission,' Taylor said. However, Taylor declined to say Monday how large of an ownership stake the nonprofit will have in the new public benefit corporation. Altman said in a call with reporters that the nonprofit will choose the board members of the public benefit corporation. Public benefit corporations were first created in Delaware in 2013, and other states have adopted the same or similar laws that require the companies to pursue not just profit but a social good. Public benefit corporations, which include Amalgamated Bank and the online education platform Coursera, need to define that social good, which can vary broadly, when they incorporate. Altman said that converting from a limited liability company to a public benefit corporation 'just sets us up to be a more understandable structure to do the things that a company of our scope has to do.' 'There's so much more demand to use AI tools than we thought there was going to be,' Altman said. Getting access to more capital will make it easier for OpenAI to pursue mergers and acquisitions 'and other normal things companies would do,' Altman said. Altman said it would 'maybe be easier' to raise money if OpenAI were a 'fully normal company,' but given its mission, 'we don't want to be a fully normal company, and we believe this is well over the bar of what we need to be able to fundraise.' 'We've had plenty of investors who think OpenAI is a great business but don't care about or don't appreciate our mission, and, you know, we're like happy not to have their money,' Altman said. OpenAI's co-founders, including Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, originally started it as a nonprofit research laboratory on a mission to safely build what's known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, for humanity's benefit. Nearly a decade later, OpenAI has reported its market value as $300 billion and counts 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT, its flagship product. OpenAI first outlined plans last year to convert its core governance structure but faced a number of challenges. One is a lawsuit from Musk, who accuses the company and Altman of betraying the founding principles that led Musk to invest in the charity. A federal judge last week dismissed some of Musk's claims and allowed others to proceed to a trial set for next year. OpenAI also faced scrutiny from the top law enforcement officers in Delaware, where the company is incorporated, and California, where it operates out of a San Francisco headquarters. The California attorney general's office said in a statement that it was reviewing the plan and, 'This remains an ongoing matter — and we are in continued conversations with Open AI.' The attorney general's office in Delaware did not immediately return a request for comment. A number of advocates, including former OpenAI employees and other charities, had petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings to use their authority to protect OpenAI's charitable purpose and block its planned restructuring. Some were concerned about what happens if the ChatGPT maker fulfills its ambition to build AI that outperforms humans, but is no longer accountable to its public mission to safeguard that technology from causing grievous harm. Multiple other artificial intelligence companies have opted to incorporate as public benefit corporations, including Anthropic and xAI, Musk's company. However, OpenAI would remain unique in that its public benefit corporation would still be controlled by the nonprofit's board.
The Hill
05-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
OpenAI reverses course and says its nonprofit will continue to control its business
After months spent pursuing a plan to convert itself into a for-profit business, OpenAI is reversing course and said Monday its nonprofit will continue to control the company that makes ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence products. 'We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,' said CEO Sam Altman in a letter to employees. Altman and the chair of OpenAI's nonprofit board, Bret Taylor, said the board made the decision for the nonprofit to retain control of OpenAI. The nonprofit already has a for-profit arm, but that arm will be converted into a public benefit corporation 'that has to consider the interests of both shareholders and the mission,' Taylor said. However, Taylor declined to say Monday how large of an ownership stake the nonprofit will have in the new public benefit corporation. Altman said in a call with reporters that the nonprofit will choose the board members if the public benefit corporation. Public benefit corporations were first created in Delaware in 2013 and other states have adopted the same or similar laws that require the companies to pursue not just profit but a social good. Public benefit corporations, which include Amalgamated Bank and the online education platform Coursera, need to define that social good, which can vary broadly, when they incorporate. Altman said that converting from a limited liability company to a public benefit corporation 'just sets up us to be a more understandable structure to do the things that a company of our scope has to do.' 'There's so much more demand to use AI tools than we thought there was going to be,' Altman said. Getting access to more capital will make it easier for OpenAI to pursue mergers and acquisitions 'and other normal things companies would do,' Altman said. Altman said it would 'maybe be easier' to raise money if OpenAI were a 'fully normal company,' but given its mission, 'we don't want to be a fully normal company, and we believe this is well over the bar of what we need to be able to fundraise.' 'We've had plenty of investors who think OpenAI is a great business but don't care about or don't appreciate our mission, and, you know, we're like happy not to have their money,' Altman said. OpenAI's co-founders, including Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, originally started it as a nonprofit research laboratory on a mission to safely build what's known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, for humanity's benefit. Nearly a decade later, OpenAI has reported its market value as $300 billion and counts 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT, its flagship product. OpenAI first outlined plans last year to convert its core governance structure but faced a number of challenges. One is a lawsuit from Musk, who accuses the company and Altman of betraying the founding principles that led Musk to invest in the charity. A federal judge last week dismissed some of Musk's claims and allowed others to proceed to a trial set for next year. OpenAI also faced scrutiny from the top law enforcement officers in Delaware, where the company is incorporated, and California, where it operates out of a San Francisco headquarters. The California attorney general's office said in a statement that it was reviewing the plan and, 'This remains an ongoing matter — and we are in continued conversations with Open AI.' The attorney general's office in Delaware did not immediately return a request for comment. A number of advocates, including former OpenAI employees and other charities, had petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, both Democrats, to use their authority to protect OpenAI's charitable purpose and block its planned restructuring. Some were concerned about what happens if the ChatGPT maker fulfills its ambition to build AI that outperforms humans, but is no longer accountable to its public mission to safeguard that technology from causing grievous harm. Multiple other artificial intelligence companies have opted to incorporate as public benefit corporations, including Anthropic and xAI, Musk's company. However, OpenAI would remain unique in that its public benefit corporation would still be controlled by the nonprofit's board.
