OpenAI considering restructuring to for-profit, CTO Mira Murati and two top research execs depart
OpenAI's board is considering plans to restructure the firm to a for-profit business. CTO Mira Murati and two top research execs said they are leaving.
OpenAI's board is considering plans to restructure the firm to a for-profit business, according to a source who asked to remain anonymous because the talks are ongoing. The company will retain its non-profit segment as a separate entity, the source said.
The structure would be more straightforward for investors and would make it easier for OpenAI employees to realize liquidity, the source added.
News of the discussions comes after OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati said Wednesday that she is leaving the company after six and a half years.
Later in the day, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said research chief Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph, a research vice president, are also departing, as the high-valued artificial intelligence startup continues to lose top talent.
Murati wrote in a memo to the company that she's "stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration." She said her focus will be on ensuring a "smooth transition."
"After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI," she wrote in the memo, which she also published on social media site X. "There's never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right."
Altman wrote in a late afternoon post on X that McGrew and Zoph were leaving, and that their decisions were independent of each other.
"The timing of Mira's decision was such that it made sense to now do this all at once, so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership," Altman wrote.
They're the latest high-level executive to depart OpenAI, which has exploded in popularity and value since releasing the ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and former safety leader Jan Leike announced their departures in May. Co-founder John Schulman said last month that he was leaving to join rival Anthropic.
OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, is currently pursuing a funding round that would value the company at more than $150 billion, according to sources familiar with the situation who asked not to be named because details of the round have not been made public. Thrive Capital is leading the round and plans to invest $1 billion, and Tiger Global is planning to join as well.
Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple are reportedly also in talks to invest.
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