By Emil Bjerg, journalist and editor
Sam Altman and OpenAI recently completed a historic funding round, all while co-founders and executives are fleeing the company in a potentially game-changing brain drain. Is OpenAI okay?
OpenAI has recently secured a massive $6.6 billion funding round, valuing the company at an astounding $157 billion. This funding was led by Thrive Capital and included participation from existing backers like Microsoft and Nvidia, as well as new investors such as SoftBank and Fidelity.
In a press release, OpenAI writes: “The new funding will allow us to double down on our leadership in frontier AI research, increase compute capacity, and continue building tools that help people solve hard problems.”
Notably, investors were required to refrain from backing rival AI startups, a strategic move to consolidate OpenAI’s market position. This type of exclusivity clause in investment agreements is neither typical nor entirely unprecedented, and reflects OpenAI’s strong market position and the high interest in investing in the company.
While OpenAI attracts some of the world’s biggest companies and investors, internally, the company bleeds talent and appears challenged and divided.
Exodus of Co-Founders and Executives
The historic funding round happens simultaneously with the departure of OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, and other leading figures in the company. As CTO of OpenAI between May 2022 and September 2024, Murati played a central role in the (re)development of several groundbreaking OpenAI technologies like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Sora. Murati was also the face of the launch of GPT-4o earlier this year.
Murati’s resignation adds to a growing list of leadership changes at OpenAI. OpenAI’s chief research officer Bob McGrew and vice president of research Barret Zoph also recently announced their departures while a number of co-founders have left in recent months. Notably, Ilya Sutskevever, instrumental in the creation of ChatGPT and OpenAI’s work with AI safety and ethics, left to form his own AI safety start-up. Greg Brockman, co-founder and loyal defender of Sam Altman, also left OpenAI for a sabbatical, his future role in the company currently unknown.
Of OpenAI’s 11 co-founders, only two of them, Sam Altman and Wojciech Zaremba, are currently active in the company.
Altman has reacted to the exodus saying that “Leadership changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so quickly and are so demanding”.
Conflicts Over Safety and Profit
In November 2023, Altman was unexpectedly fired as CEO of OpenAI by the board of directors. The board cited concerns that Altman was not sufficiently prioritizing AI safety in the company’s rapid development of advanced AI technologies. However, a large number of OpenAI employees supported Altman, which led to his return as CEO.
This back-and-forth led to a tumultuous period for the company that still seems to create division in the company. Jan Leike and John Schulman, who led efforts around AI safety and ethics, left OpenAI to join Anthropic, a major competitor. Jan Leike cited concerns about OpenAI’s prioritization of “shiny products” over safety, stating that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat” at the company.
Anthropic was co-founded by the siblings and ex-OpenAI’ers Dario and Daniela Amodei. The Amodei siblings have positioned Anthropic as a more cautious and responsible alternative to OpenAI’s rapid commercialization approach, attracting some of those departing from OpenAI.
According to WIRED, which has spoken to several ex-OpenAI employees, the ongoing commercialization of the company also “continues to be a source of friction”. Initially founded as a non-profit organization to develop safe AI, OpenAI has slowly transformed into a for-profit company.
The profit focus has seen the company focus on products over research, apparently leading to frustrations among OpenAI employees. Ironically, it’s advanced and bold research bets that have made OpenAI as valuable as it is today.
Is OpenAI Ok?
OpenAI has just completed the largest funding round in history, but are also bleeding talent. A column from WIRED argues that OpenAI’s talent exodus gives rivals an opening. A few years ago, Google was bleeding AI talent to OpenAI; now OpenAI is losing key figures to Google and especially Anthropic. OpenAI may be the most valuable AI start-up, but the playing field in generative AI looks more open than it has for years.
