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OpenAI Poaches From Musk Again, Hires Former xAI Sales Head for Cybersecurity Sales
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- DeepHorus
According to an October 17 Bloomberg report, OpenAI has hired Graham Seamans, former head of sales at SpaceX-owned xAI, to lead sales for its cybersecurity business. This is the latest instance of OpenAI recently poaching from Elon Musk's AI business. Seamans will join OpenAI's cybersecurity team, becoming another sales executive the company has recruited from xAI.
Public information shows that Seamans had led xAI's sales team since August 2025, during which he was involved in the company's efforts to promote the Grok chatbot to Wall Street customers. His LinkedIn profile shows that before joining xAI, he worked at database company MongoDB for about eight years. This move to OpenAI means xAI's sales setup targeting financial clients has lost a key person in charge.
Seamans's job change is not an isolated case. Since September, OpenAI has successively hired Brian McCarthy, former global revenue and sales president at Cursor, and Ismail Elmas, former senior vice president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at the company, as vice president of global sales and vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, respectively. The arrival of the two completes OpenAI's sales management structure at both global and regional levels.
OpenAI's poaching is not limited to the sales line. The company also recruited Uday Rudraraju, former head of infrastructure engineering at xAI, and Brent Mayo, former senior manager of data center construction and infrastructure. The two are responsible for OpenAI's infrastructure and compute business, and data center construction and delivery, respectively. This means OpenAI has simultaneously replenished two types of key talent—commercial and compute—from a competitor.
It is worth noting that SpaceX acquired programming automation startup Cursor for $60 billion in August this year, equivalent to about RMB 401.908 billion at the exchange rate at the time of the report. Both McCarthy and Elmas previously worked at this company. This series of deals and personnel changes has made talent flows between Musk's businesses and OpenAI more frequent.
Behind this series of personnel moves is OpenAI's intention to further expand its commercial business before a potential IPO. The company is working to increase revenue from enterprise customers and to develop new revenue sources such as advertising. Recruiting executives with experience selling to large clients is seen as an important step in accelerating its commercialization.
Tensions between OpenAI and Musk have a long history. Musk once sued OpenAI, which he helped found, accusing it of abandoning its mission to serve the public by shifting to a for-profit business model, but ultimately lost the case. He later founded xAI, an AI company competing with OpenAI, and merged it into SpaceX.
As the two sides face off directly on the two fronts of model capabilities and the enterprise market, such talent flows are expected to continue. The industry is watching whether OpenAI can, with the help of this group of newly joined executives, deliver a more convincing commercial report card before a potential listing milestone.
