((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
(Writing Through) by Anna Tong
Three top technical executives at Microsoft-backed OpenAI resigned Wednesday, the latest in a series of executive departures this year as the maker of ChatGPT is undergoing a major transformation.
Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Vice President of 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 funding round that values the company at $150 billion, conditional on the company changing its corporate structure.
The company plans to restructure as a for-profit corporation and give Chief Executive Sam Altman an equity stake, Reuters reported Wednesday. Currently, a nonprofit board controls the for-profit entity, an unusual structure that led nonprofit board members to oust Mr. Altman in November 2023 over a breakdown in communication and a loss of trust. He was reinstated after five days.
The funding round has not yet been closed and the company is in the process of finalizing it.
It was unclear whether the executives’ departures could affect the ongoing fundraising. Some fundraising documents contain a “material adverse change” clause that allows investors to walk away from a deal if the company encounters something that could have a material negative impact.
According to a source close to Murati, she is still working at OpenAI as she negotiates her exit from the company. She has been with the ChatGPT maker for 6 1/2 years, and briefly served as CEO in November when the board temporarily replaced Altman.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Murati joined OpenAI as “VP of Applied AI and Partnerships” in December 2020 and was promoted to CTO in May 2022. Prior to OpenAI, she worked at virtual and augmented reality startup Leap Motion and Tesla TSLA.O.
As CTO, Murati frequently appeared alongside Altman as the public face of the ChatGPT maker. When OpenAI launched its GPT-4o model in May, capable of having realistic voice conversations, Murati led the presentation.
“I am stepping down because I want to create the time and space for my own exploration,” Mr. Murati wrote in a message on X.
Murati, Zoph, and McGrew are the latest in a series of executive departures from OpenAI. In August, OpenAI co-founder John Schulman said on X that he had joined rival AI company Anthropic, and another co-founder, Greg Brockman, also said on X that he was taking a sabbatical until the end of the year. A third co-founder, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, left OpenAI in May.
On X, Mr. Altman said Ms. Murati did not inform him in advance of her departure, telling him she wanted to do so when the company was growing and that “there is never a good time.” In the same message, Mr. Altman also announced a series of internal promotions: Matt Knight is becoming chief information security officer, Josh Achiam is becoming chief mission alignment officer and Mark Chen is becoming senior vice president of research.
