OpenAI Hires Former xAI CFO Mike Liberatore Amid Escalating Rivalry with Elon Musk

OpenAI hires former xAI CFO Mike Liberatore as business finance officer

Sept 16 (Reuters) - OpenAI has hired Mike Liberatore, former finance chief at Elon Musk's xAI, to be the artificial intelligence startup's business finance officer, responsible for overseeing its AI infrastructure, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday. Liberatore, who left xAI in July after just three months on the job, will report to CFO Sarah Friar and work with Greg Brockman's team, which is charged with scaling OpenAI's access to compute, the spokesperson said. CNBC, which first reported the news, said Liberatore will begin his role on Tuesday. Liberatore, who is also a former Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab executive, was involved in xAI's $5 billion debt raise in June and a separate $5 billion strategic equity investment. His appointment comes amid a rivalry between Musk's company and OpenAI, as well as a fierce battle among tech companies for AI talent. Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, had sued the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, last year for allegedly deviating from its original mission to benefit humanity. OpenAI countersued Musk in April for harassment. Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Janane Venkatraman Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

OpenAI hires former xAI CFO as Altman-Musk rivalry escalates

Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who used to be good friends, are now bitter rivals engaged in a heated legal dispute. OpenAI has hired Mike Liberatore, former finance chief at Elon Musk's xAI, to be the artificial intelligence startup's business finance officer, responsible for overseeing its massive infrastructure spending. Liberatore, who left xAI in July after just three months on the job, begins Tuesday, a company spokesperson told CNBC. He will report to CFO Sarah Friar and work with Greg Brockman's team, which manages the contracts and capital behind OpenAI's compute strategy. The hiring of Liberatore is the latest move in an escalating feud between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Musk, who used to be good friends but have turned into bitter rivals. The pair helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab, but had a public falling out in recent years as the company morphed into a rapid-growing commercial enterprise, financed principally by Microsoft. Musk sued Altman and OpenAI last year for breach of contract and has since tried to thwart the company's effort to restructure into a for-profit entity. OpenAI took a significant step towards that transition last week, announcing that its nonprofit parent will continue to have oversight over the company and will own an equity stake of more than $100 billion. OpenAI, which was recently valued by investors at $500 billion, has been steadily increasing its compute commitments, including a $300 billion deal with Oracle. Liberatore previously spent almost nine years at Airbnb, and before that worked in senior finance roles at SquareTrade, eBay and PayPal. At xAI, Liberatore helped arrange a $5 billion debt sale alongside a $5 billion equity raise backed partly by SpaceX, and approved major data center expansion plans. His exit, which was was first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, was part of a string of high-profile departures at Musk's AI startup.

Former xAI CFO Named OpenAI's New Business Finance Officer

Mike Liberatore will report to OpenAI's CFO, Sarah Friar, and will work with co-founder Greg Brockman's team. OpenAI has hired Mike Liberatore, the former chief financial officer at Elon Musk's AI company xAI, CNBC reported on September 16. Liberatore's LinkedIn profile lists his current role as the business finance officer at OpenAI. His tenure at xAI lasted merely four months, and previously, he worked as the vice president of finance and corporate development at Airbnb. The report added that Liberatore will report to OpenAI's current CFO, Sarah Friar, and will work with co-founder Greg Brockman's team, which manages the contracts and capital behind the company's compute strategy. According to The Wall Street Journal's report, Liberatore was involved with xAI's funding efforts, including a $5 billion debt sale in June. He also oversaw xAI's data centre expansion in Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States. The reasons for his departure remain unknown. Liberatore is an addition to the list of recent high-profile departures from xAI. Last month, Robert Keele, who was the general counsel at the company, announced his departure, stating that there were differences between his worldviews and Musk's. The WSJ report also added that Raghu Rao, a senior lawyer overseeing the commercial and legal affairs for the company, left around the same time. Furthermore, Igor Babuschkin, the co-founder of the company, also announced last month that he was leaving xAI to start his own venture capital firm. That being said, Liberatore's appointment at OpenAI comes at a time when the company has announced significant structural changes. OpenAI recently announced that its nonprofit division will now be 'paired' with a stake in its public benefit corporation (PBC), valued at over $100 billion. The company also announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft to transform its for-profit arm into a PBC. This structural change was initially announced by OpenAI in May.

OpenAI hires former xAI CFO Liberatore- CNBC By Investing.com

Investing.com-- OpenAI has hired Mike Liberatore, former CFO at Elon Musk's xAI, to be its business finance officer, CNBC reported on Tuesday, citing a statement from the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup. Liberatore will begin at OpenAI from Tuesday, CNBC reported. He had left xAI in July after only three months on the job. Liberatore's hiring comes amid a bitter feud between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, as the latter repeatedly attempted to thwart OpenAI's plans to turn into a for-profit entity. OpenAI had marked major progress towards that goal last week, having reached a framework deal with top backer Microsoft. Musk has repeatedly engaged in personal attacks against Altman on social media. Prior to xAI, Liberatore spent about nine years at Airbnb, and had also served in senior finance positions at eBay and PayPal. At xAI, Liberatore helped arrange at least $10 billion in funding for the startup. His exit was reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier in September, and was part of several high-profile departures from Musk's startup. xAI was seeking a $200 billion valuation during a funding round in July, reports had shown then. OpenAI was valued at $500 billion following a share sale in August. The startup clinched Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) as a major investor earlier this year.