OpenAI Executive Departures

By Anna Tong
(Reuters) – Three top technical leaders at Microsoft-backed OpenAI quit on Wednesday, the latest in a string of executive departures this year amid a period of flux for the ChatGPT maker.

Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, VP Research Barret Zoph, and Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew all announced their departures via X on Wednesday afternoon.

The San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup is negotiating a new $6.5 billion financing round valuing the company at $150 billion, contingent on a corporate structure overhaul.

The company aims to transition to a for-profit benefit corporation, giving CEO Sam Altman an equity stake, as reported. Currently, a non-profit board controls the for-profit entity, an unusual structure that led to the board ousting Altman in November 2023, which caused a breakdown in communication and trust. He was reinstated after five days.

The funding round has not yet closed, and the company is finalizing the details. It is unclear if the executives’ departures could affect the ongoing fundraising efforts. Some fundraising documents contain a “material adverse change” clause, allowing investors to withdraw if significant negative impacts arise.

Murati is still working at OpenAI while negotiating her exit. She has been with the company for 6.5 years and briefly served as CEO in November during Altman’s absence.
According to her LinkedIn profile, she joined OpenAI as VP of Applied AI and Partnerships in December 2020 and became CTO in May 2022. Previously, she worked at virtual and augmented reality startup Leap Motion and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).

As CTO, Murati frequently appeared alongside Altman as the public face of OpenAI. When OpenAI launched its GPT-4o model in May, capable of realistic voice conversation, Murati led the presentation.
“I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” Murati wrote on X.

Murati, Zoph, and McGrew are the latest in a series of executive departures at OpenAI. In August, co-founder John Schulman joined rival AI company Anthropic, and fellow co-founder Greg Brockman announced a sabbatical through the end of the year. A third co-founder, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, left in May.

On X, Altman mentioned that Murati did not inform him in advance of her departure, stating that she wanted to leave while the company was thriving, saying, “there is never a good time.” He also announced several internal promotions: Matt Knight to Chief Information Security Officer, Josh Achiam to head of mission alignment, and Mark Chen to Senior Vice President of Research.