Three top technical leaders at Microsoft-backed OpenAI have resigned, marking the latest in a series of executive departures this year. The company is currently undergoing significant changes, including negotiations for a new $6.5 billion financing round and a restructuring to a for-profit benefit corporation.
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Chief technology officer Mira Murati, vice president of research Barret Zoph, and chief research officer Bob McGrew announced their departures on social media. The departures come at a time when OpenAI is finalizing a new funding round that could value the company at $150 billion.
The company’s corporate structure has been a source of controversy. In November 2023, CEO Sam Altman was temporarily ousted by the non-profit board due to communication breakdowns and a loss of trust. He was reinstated after five days, and the company is now planning to restructure to give Altman an equity stake.
The executives’ departures could potentially impact the ongoing fundraising process. Some fundraising documents contain a “material adverse change” clause that allows investors to withdraw from a deal if the company experiences significant negative events.
Murati, who has been with OpenAI for six and a half years, is currently negotiating her exit from the company. She previously served as CEO during Altman’s brief ouster. Before joining OpenAI, she worked at Leap Motion and Tesla.
As CTO, Murati frequently represented OpenAI publicly, alongside Altman. She led the presentation for the launch of the GPT-4 model in May. In her departure announcement, Murati stated that she wanted to create time and space for her own exploration.
The departures of Murati, Zoph, and McGrew follow a series of other executive departures at OpenAI. Co-founders John Schulman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever have also left the company in recent months.
Sam Altman expressed disappointment that Murati did not inform him in advance of her departure. He announced internal promotions to fill the vacant positions, including Matt Knight as chief information security officer, Josh Achiam as head of mission alignment, and Mark Chen as senior vice president of research.
