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Executives Vie for Altman's Attention
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- DeepHorus
According to a Financial Times report on August 16, OpenAI is facing growing internal turmoil as CEO Sam Altman busily prepares for an IPO. Since the beginning of this year, the company has undergone nearly six management reshuffles, with several executives departing in succession, sparking employee dissatisfaction. One of the world's most valuable privately held companies is now facing an unprecedented governance test.
This week, OpenAI's Chief Revenue Officer Dennis Dresser announced his departure just months after taking the role. Previously, former CFO and COO Brad Lightcap and AI ethics head Chloe Bakara had also left. OpenAI responded that the company is operating at an extraordinary pace and is not afraid of organizational restructuring. However, the frequent personnel changes have left some employees frustrated, with insiders describing the situation as 'exhausting.'
Fidji Simo, who leads the applications business and was once the second-in-command after Altman, has transitioned to an advisory role after returning from medical leave last month. Sources say she remains active behind the scenes, communicating with employees nearly every day and playing a key role in internal power dynamics. Meanwhile, co-founder Greg Brockman, seen as Altman's most trusted lieutenant, is leveraging the power vacuum left by the wave of departures to expand his influence.
At the end of last month, OpenAI disbanded the 'Preparedness' team responsible for evaluating model risks, with senior staff reassigned to existing teams. Jan Leike, who co-led the 'Superalignment' team, said upon resigning in 2024 that safety at OpenAI had 'taken a backseat to shiny products.' The head of the Preparedness team, Dylan Scandinaro, has been moved to a new role focused on exploring the safety implications of recursively self-improving AI.
Some employees believe these changes expose governance failures at a critical time as the company races toward a trillion-dollar IPO. OpenAI's annualized revenue has grown from $24 billion at the end of last year to about $40 billion this month, but rival Anthropic has grown even faster, surging from $9 billion to $47 billion—more than a fourfold increase. Most of OpenAI's growth is attributed to the GPT-5.6 model released five weeks ago.
The IPO was originally scheduled for this year, but it has likely been postponed to next year. Recently, employees cashed out through a tender offer of nearly $7 billion, valuing the company at $852 billion, with some employees cashing out more than $10 million. Some investors have expressed concerns about high turnover and strategic focus, while others see it as a normal cleanup before going public.
Since the crisis in late 2023 when Altman was briefly ousted, OpenAI has assembled a new executive team to drive operational professionalism. Altman has asked employees to cut back on side projects and focus on competing for ChatGPT and enterprise customers. Brockman said technological progress requires 'more robust' safety measures, and the company has integrated safety research more deeply into the model development process. However, vacancies in key safety roles have exacerbated internal unease, with a person close to the company admitting: 'It's a bit scary. There's an urgent need to get this right.'
