OpenAI's Leadership Exodus: Key Executives Depart Amid Strategic Shift

What the Heck Is Going On At OpenAI?

NYFF: How a Palme d'Or Winner Pulled Off an '80s-Style Action-Comedy Set Piece Involving a Sex Worker Nothing succeeds like success, but in Silicon Valley nothing raises eyebrows like a steady trickle out the door. The exit of OpenAI's chief technology officer Mira Murati announced on Sept. 25 has set Silicon Valley tongues wagging that all is not well in Altmanland -- especially since sources say she left because she'd given up on trying to reform or slow down the company from within. Murati was joined in her departure from the high-flying firm by two top science minds, chief research officer Bob McGrew and researcher Barret Zoph (who helped develop ChatGPT). All are leaving for no immediately known opportunity. The drama is both personal and philosophical -- and goes to the heart of how the machine-intelligence age will be shaped. It dates back to November, when a mix of Sam Altman's allegedly squirrelly management style and safety questions about a top-secret project called Q* (later renamed Strawberry and released last month as o1) prompted some board members to try to oust the co-founder. They succeeded -- but only for a few days. The 39-year-old face of the AI movement was able to regain control of his buzzy company, thanks in no small part to Satya Nadella's Microsoft, which owns 49 percent of OpenAI and didn't want Altman going anywhere. The board was shuffled to be more Altman-friendly and several directors who opposed him were forced out. A top executive wary of his motives, OpenAI co-founder and chief science officer Ilya Sutskever, would also eventually leave. Sutskever himself was concerned with Altman's "accelerationism" -- the idea of pushing ahead on AI development at any cost. Sutskever exited in May, though a person who knows him tells The Hollywood Reporter he had effectively stopped being involved with the firm after the failed November coup. (Sutskever more than landed on his feet -- he just raised $1 billion for a new AI safety company.) Sutskever and another high-level staffer, Jan Leike, had run a "superalignment" team charged with forecasting and avoiding dangers. Leike left the same time as Sutskever, and the team was dissolved. Like several other employees, Leike has since joined Anthropic, OpenAI's rival that is widely seen as more safety-conscious. Murati, McGrew and Zoph are the latest dominoes to fall. Murati, too, had been concerned about safety -- industry shorthand for the idea that new AI models can pose short-term risks like hidden bias and long-term hazards like Skynet scenarios and should thus undergo more rigorous testing. (This is deemed particularly likely with the achievement of artificial general intelligence, or AGI, the ability of a machine to problem-solve as well as a human which could be reached in as little as 1-2 years.) But unlike Sutskever, after the November drama Murati decided to stay at the company in part to try to slow down Altman and president Greg Brockman's accelerationist efforts from within, according to a person familiar with the workings of OpenAI who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the situation. It's unclear what tipped Murati over the edge, but the release of o1 last month may have contributed to her decision. The product represents a new approach that aims not only to synthesize information as many current large language models do ("rewrite the Gettysburg address as a Taylor Swift song") but reason out math and coding problems like a human. Those concerned with AI safety have urged more testing and guardrails before such products are unleashed on the public. The flashy product release also comes at the same time as, and in a sense partly as a result of, OpenAI's full transition to a for-profit company, with no nonprofit oversight and a CEO in Altman who will have equity like any other founder. That shift, which is conducive to accelerationism as well, also worried many of the departing executives, including Murati, the person said. Murati said in an X post that "this moment feels right" to step away. Concerns have grown so great that some ex-employees are sounding the alarm in the most prominent public spaces. Last month William Saunders, a former member of OpenAI's technical staff, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee that he left the company because he saw global disaster brewing if OpenAI remains on its current path. "AGI would cause significant changes to society, including radical changes to the economy and employment. AGI could also cause the risk of catastrophic harm via systems autonomously conducting cyberattacks, or assisting in the creation of novel biological weapons," he told lawmakers. "No one knows how to ensure that AGI systems will be safe and controlled ... OpenAI will say that they are improving. I and other employees who resigned doubt they will be ready in time." An OpenAI spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. Founded as a nonprofit in 2015 -- "we'll freely collaborate with others across many institutions and expect to work with companies to research and deploy new technologies," its mission statement said -- OpenAI launched a for-profit subsidiary in 2019. But it has until now still been controlled by the board of the nonprofit foundation. The decision to remove the nonprofit oversight gives the company more freedom -- and incentive -- to speed ahead on new products while also potentially making it more appealing to investors. And investment is crucial: a New York Times report found that OpenAI could lose $5 billion this year. (The cost of both chips and the power needed to run them are extremely high.) On Wednesday the company announced a fresh round of capital from parties including Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia totaling some $6.6 billion. OpenAI also must cut pricey licensing deals with publishers as lawsuits from the Times and others inhibit the firm's ability to freely train their models on those publishers' content. OpenAI's moves are giving industry watchdogs pause. "The switch to a for-profit solidified what was already clear: most of the talk about safety was probably just lip service," Gary Marcus, a veteran AI expert and the author of the newly released book Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us, tells THR. "The company is interested in making money, and not having any checks and balances to ensure that it is safe." OpenAI has something of a history of releasing products before the industry thinks they're ready. ChatGPT itself shocked the tech industry when it came out in November 2022; rivals at Google who had been working on a similar product thought none of the latest LLM's were ready for primetime. Whether OpenAI could keep innovating at this pace given the brain drain of the past week remains to be seen. Perhaps to distract from the drama and reassure doubters, Altman put out a rare personal blog post last week positing that "superintelligence" -- the far-reaching idea that machines can become so powerful they can do everything far better than humans -- could happen as soon as the early 2030's. "Astounding triumphs -- fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all of physics -- will eventually become commonplace," he wrote. Ironically, it may have been exactly such talk that made Sutskever and Murati head for the door.

OpenAI's Leadership Exodus: 9 Key Execs Who Left the A.I. Giant This Year

Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, joins a growing list of OpenAI executives who have departed the company in 2024. Since ChatGPT took the world by storm in late 2022, OpenAI's revenue and market value have skyrocketed. But internally, the company hasn't necessarily had the smoothest ride. The A.I. giant, valued at $150 billion, lost a slew of top executives this year. On Wednesday (Sept. 25) alone, a trio of leaders, including chief technology officer Mira Murati, chief research officer Bob McGrew, and VP of research Barret Zoph, all announced their departures. They join a larger group of former OpenAI employees who have left for rival A.I. developers and startups. As of now, CEO Sam Altman is one of only two active remaining members of the company's original 11-person founding team. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters OpenAI hasn't just lost employees -- it has also rehired some familiar faces. In May, OpenAI welcomed back Kyle Kosic, who worked at the company between 2021 and 2023 on its technical staff. Kosic left last year to join Elon Musk's xAI. Several other outgoing OpenAI employees have taken similar routes and gone on to work for competing A.I. companies, showing just how competitive the industry is at the moment. Here's a look at some of the top leaders OpenAI has lost in 2024 thus far: Andrej Karpathy, research scientist Andrej Karpathy has left OpenAI not once but twice. One of OpenAI's 11 founders, Karpathy helped build the company's team on computer vision, generative modeling and reinforcement learning. He first departed in 2017 to lead Tesla's Autopilot effort. Returning to OpenAI in 2023, Karpathy left once again in February this year to focus on "personal projects." He subsequently established Eureka Labs, an A.I. education startup. Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist and co-head of the super alignment team A renowned machine learning researcher, Ilya Sutskever helped co-found OpenAI nearly a decade ago and served as the company's chief scientist. He was also notably a member of the four-person board that temporarily ousted Altman last year before reinstating him. Sutskever, who was subsequently removed from the board, later said he regretted his involvement in the brief ouster. In May, he announced his departure from OpenAI and said he was leaving for a venture that is "very personally meaningful." This project was revealed to be Safe Superintelligence, a startup focused on developing a safe form of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a type of A.I. that can think and learn on par with humans. Earlier this month, the company was valued at $5 billion after raising $1 billion from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Jan Leike, co-head of the super alignment team Just days after Sutskever left, OpenAI executive Jan Leike announced his resignation as well. Sutskever and Leike co-ran the company's safety team, which has since been disbanded. Leike said he decided to leave in part due to disagreements with OpenAI leadership "about the company's core priorities," citing a lack of focus on safety processes around developing AGI. Leike has since taken up a new role as head of alignment science at Anthropic, an OpenAI rival founded by former OpenAI employees Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei. John Schulman, head of alignment science John Schulman, another OpenAI co-founder, made significant contributions to the creation of ChatGPT. After Leike's departure, Schulman became head of OpenAI's alignment science efforts and was appointed to its new safety committee in May. That's why Schulman's decision in August to step away from the company came as a surprise -- especially when he revealed that he would be joining Anthropic. "This choice stems from my desire to deepen my focus on A.I. alignment and to start a new chapter of my career where I can return to hands-on technical work," said Schulman on X, where he also clarified that his decision to step away from OpenAI wasn't connected to a lack of support for alignment research. Peter Deng, vice president of consumer product Peter Deng, a top OpenAI product executive, also decided to step away from the company earlier this year. Having first joined OpenAI last year, he ended his tenure as vice president of product in July, according to his LinkedIn. Deng, who also previously held product leader positions at companies like Uber (UBER) and Meta (META), has not publicly revealed his next steps. Greg Brockman, president Greg Brockman, often seen as Altman's right-hand man, hasn't technically left the company but is instead taking a sabbatical through the end of 2024. In August, he announced his time off and described it as the "first time to relax since co-founding OpenAI nine years ago." Brockman started off as OpenAI's chief technology officer before becoming the company's president in 2022. He indicated that he plans to return to OpenAI, noting that "the mission is far from complete; we still have a safe AGI to build." Mira Murati, chief technology officer Mira Murati, one of OpenAI's most public-facing figures, resigned earlier this week after more than six years with the company. "I'm stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration," said Murati, who notably served as interim CEO during Altman's brief ousting last year, on X. Adding that she will "still be rooting" for OpenAI, Murati said her primary focus currently is "doing everything in my power to ensure a smooth transition, maintaining the momentum we've built." Altman praised her leadership in a statement on X, describing Murati as instrumental to OpenAI's "development from an unknown research lab to an important company." Bob McGrew, chief research officer Shortly after Murati's resignation, Bob McGrew, OpenAI's chief research officer, also announced plans to leave the company. He simply said on X, "It is time for me to take a break." Having previously worked at PayPal (PYPL) and Palantir, McGrew started off as a member of OpenAI's technical staff and has been serving as OpenAI's chief research officer since August. Barret Zoph, vice president of research Barret Zoph is the third executive who announced his resignation this week. Like his two colleagues, Zoph said it's a "personal decision based on how I want to evolve the next phase of my career." Zoph, a former research scientist at Google (GOOGL), joined OpenAI in 2022 and played a large role in overseeing OpenAI's post-training team. Murati, McGrew and Zoph made their decisions independently of each other, according to Altman, but decided to depart simultaneously "so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership." The CEO conceded that, while the abruptness of the leadership changes isn't the most natural, "we are not a normal company."

OpenAI Execs Feared ChatGPT-Parent Would Collapse After Departure Of Ilya Sutskever, Tried To Woo Him Back And Almost Succeeded: Report

Executives at ChatGPT-parent OpenAI were reportedly apprehensive about the company's future following the exit of key personnel, including co-founder Ilya Sutskever. What Happened: Earlier this week, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced her exit from the company, which re-ignited the concerns regarding OpenAI and the increasing number of high-profile departures from the company. Now, a report by the Wall Street Journal has indicated that after Sutskever resigned in May, followed shortly by Jan Leike, OpenAI executives, fearing a potential larger exodus, worked to bring Sutskever back. See Also: iPhone 15 Pro Models and iPhone 13 Discontinued By Apple: Here's Why Murati and the then OpenAI President Greg Brockman visited Sutskever at his home, expressing concerns and bringing letters and cards from employees urging his return, the report noted. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also reportedly visited him. As per the report, while Sutskever was considering his return, he was later told by Brockman that the offer for him to come back had been rescinded. Soon after, Sutskever founded a new venture, Safe Superintelligence, aimed at developing the most advanced AI without the distraction of product releases, raising $1 billion in funding. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: OpenAI is reportedly working on making a shift from a non-profit to a for-profit benefit corporation. Earlier this week, it was reported that OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar tried to reassure staff by highlighting the "incredibly high" investor interest in the company's funding round following the departure of Murati. On the other hand, Elon Musk, co-founder of OpenAI and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has expressed concerns about the company's transition to a for-profit entity, which could potentially give CEO Altman a 7% stake ChatGPT-parent. On Friday, it was also reported that Apple Inc. has reportedly withdrawn from negotiations to invest in OpenAI's funding round, which aims to raise between $6.5 billion and $7 billion. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Billionaire Tech CEO Makes Cameo In Zuckerberg's Meta Connect Show Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photos courtesy: Flickr and Stanford University Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Who's left at OpenAI? Sam Altman consolidates power after failed coup

Cristina Criddle in San Francisco and Madhumita Murgia in London "OpenAI is nothing without its people." That was the sentence echoed by dozens of employees on social media in November to pressure the board that had fired chief executive Sam Altman and convince them to reinstate him. Those words were repeated again on Wednesday as its high-profile chief technology officer, Mira Murati, announced her departure, along with two others: Bob McGrew, chief research officer, and Barret Zoph, vice-president of research. Murati's decision shocked staff and pointed to a new direction for the nine-year-old company that has pivoted from a scrappy AI research organisation to a commercial behemoth. Altman was only notified in the morning, just hours before Murati sent a message company-wide. Altman said on X that he "won't pretend it's natural for this . . . to be so abrupt", as the exits made it apparent that the company had not healed from the fractures caused by the failed autumn coup. In the months after the bruising board battle, Altman has surrounded himself with allies as the fast-growing start-up pushes ahead with plans to restructure as a for-profit company. It also emerged this week that Altman had discussed taking an equity stake with the board, at a time the San Francisco-based company has sought to raise more than $6bn at a $150bn valuation. Those talks come after Altman, who is already a billionaire from his previous tech ventures and investments, had previously said he had chosen not to take any equity in OpenAI to remain neutral in the company. This account of how Altman consolidated his power and loyalties at the ChatGPT maker is based on conversations with seven former and current employees, as well as advisers and executives close to the company's leadership. They said that OpenAI planned to rely on existing technical talent and recent hires to take on Murati's responsibilities and use her exit to "flatten" the organisation. Altman is to have greater technical involvement as the company looks to retain its lead over Google and other rivals. Despite its dramas, OpenAI is still a leading player in AI, with the start-up revealing the o1 model earlier this month, which it said was capable of reasoning -- a feat that its rivals Meta and Anthropic are also grappling with. "Mira is focused on a successful transition with her teams before turning her full energy and attention to what comes next," said a person familiar with her thinking. With Murati's departure, Altman promoted Mark Chen to head up research with Jakub Pachocki, who took over from Ilya Sutskever as chief scientist in May. In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this month, where Murati introduced Chen as the primary lead on the o1 project, he said the ability of AI systems to reason would "improve our offerings [and] help power improvements across all of our programs". There will probably be further changes in the coming days as Altman interrupts a trip to Europe this week to return to the company's headquarters in San Francisco. Executives who remain at OpenAI include Brad Lightcap, the company's chief operating officer who leads on its enterprise deals, and Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer, both of whom are longtime allies of Altman and worked at start-up incubator Y Combinator under Altman. In June, Altman hired Kevin Weil, chief product officer, who previously worked at Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and Sarah Friar, chief financial officer, the former chief executive of Nextdoor, a neighbourhood-based social network. Both come from consumer tech companies, focusing on product and user growth rather than science or engineering. Their jobs are new for OpenAI, but familiar to most Silicon Valley start-ups, marking the move by the company to become a more traditional tech group focused on building products that appeal to consumers and generate revenue. OpenAI said these efforts are not at odds with ensuring AI benefits everyone. "As we've evolved from a research lab into a global company delivering advanced AI research to hundreds of millions, we've stayed true to our mission and are proud to release the most capable and safest models in the industry to help people solve hard problems," an OpenAI spokesperson said. Friar sought to boost morale this week, telling staff that the $6bn funding round, which was expected to close by next week, was oversubscribed, arguing its high value was a testament to their hard work. Another prominent newcomer is Chris Lehane, a former aide to then-US president Bill Clinton and Airbnb vice-president, who worked for Altman as an adviser during the coup and joined the company earlier this year. He recently took over as vice-president of global affairs from Anna Makanju, OpenAI's first policy hire, who has moved into a newly created role as vice-president of global impact. With the latest departures, Altman has said goodbye to two of the senior executives who had raised concerns about him to the board last October -- Sutskever and Murati, who said she was approached by the board and perplexed by the decision to oust him. Concerns included Altman's leadership style of undermining and pitting people against one another, creating a toxic environment, multiple people with knowledge of the decision to fire him said. Within a day, as investors and employees backed Altman, Murati and Sutskever joined calls for his return and remained at the company, wishing to steady the ship and keep it sailing towards the mission: building artificial general intelligence -- systems that could rival or surpass human intelligence -- to benefit humanity. This was the mantra under which OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Altman and nine others. It was initially a non-profit, then transitioned to a capped-profit entity in 2019. Now, as it seeks to close its latest multibillion-dollar funding round, the company is rethinking its corporate structure in order to attract investors and generate greater returns. Only two co-founders, Altman and Wojciech Zaremba, remain at the company. President Greg Brockman is on sabbatical until the end of the year. For many of OpenAI's staff there is a desire to work on AGI and reach that goal before competitors such as Meta or Musk's xAI. They buy into the so-called cult of Sam and believe he will lead them to this breakthrough. Yet, several staff have expressed concern about reaching this goal, suggesting the creation of products being prioritised over safety. Daniel Kokotajlo, a former AI governance researcher, said that when he left the company in March, the closest OpenAI had come to a plan for how to keep AGI safe was the final appendix on a December paper written by Jan Leike, a safety researcher, alongside Sutskever. "You might expect a company of more than 1,000 people building this to have a comprehensive written plan for how to ensure AGI is safe, which would be published so it could be critiqued and iterated," he said. "OpenAI knows any such detail would not stand up to scrutiny, but this is the bare minimum that is acceptable for an institution building the most powerful and dangerous technology ever." OpenAI pointed to its preparedness framework as an example of its transparency and planning, adding that the technology could also bring many positives. "OpenAI continues to invest significantly in safety research, security measures, and third-party collaborations, and we will continue to oversee and assess their efforts," said Zico Kolter and Paul Nakasone, members of the independent board's Safety and Security oversight committee.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar Reassures Staff Of 'Incredibly High' Investor Interest As CTO Mira Murati And Key Executives Exit Amid Major Strategic Shift

OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar reportedly informed employees that investor interest in the company's funding round was "incredibly high." What Happened: This announcement aimed to reassure staff following the unexpected resignations of several high-profile executives, reported Axios, citing a source familiar with the situation. The departures began with CTO Mira Murati, who informed CEO Sam Altman of her decision on Wednesday morning. Her resignation was publicly announced later that afternoon. Following Murati's exit, Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and VP of Research Barret Zoph also announced their departures. During a half-hour staff meeting on Thursday, Altman, appearing remotely from Italy, along with Friar and Murati, addressed the company's direction and future. Altman expressed gratitude towards Murati and acknowledged the promotion of Mark Chen to Senior VP of Research and Jakub Pachocki to Chief Scientist. Friar highlighted the overwhelming investor interest in the funding round, describing it as "very oversubscribed and market-defining." She noted that investors are impressed by OpenAI's progress and potential. A clause in the funding agreement allows investors to request their money back if OpenAI does not restructure within two years, according to the report. Additionally, OpenAI's board is contemplating a shift away from its nonprofit roots, potentially granting significant equity to Altman. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Benzinga's comment request. See Also: Marques Brownlee Reviews Apple's iPhone 16 And Launches New App: 'This Is The Most Unfinished I've Ever Seen A New iPhone Launch' Why It Matters: The recent high-profile departures at OpenAI come at a crucial time as the company undergoes significant changes. CEO Altman recently defended the executive exits, stating that such changes are natural for a rapidly growing company. OpenAI is also transitioning to a for-profit model, a move that could significantly benefit Altman financially. The restructuring aims to attract more investors and could lead to an IPO in the future. Furthermore, OpenAI has reportedly been engaging with President Joe Biden's administration to expand its data centers, highlighting the economic and national security benefits. Lastly, OpenAI's collaboration with Apple Inc.'s former design legend Jony Ive on a new AI hardware project adds another layer of intrigue to the company's future. Details about this project remain scarce. Read Next: Ex-Microsoft CEO And Billionaire Steve Ballmer Says He Gets 'Most Important Stuff' From Elon Musk's X: 'I Wanna Know Straight From The Source' Image Via Shutterstock This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Sam Altman Hits Back At Trolls After Mira Murati's OpenAI Exit, Explains Executive Drain As Natural: 'We Are Not A Normal Company'

Following several high-profile departures, with the latest being OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, CEO Sam Altman has taken to social media to address the concerns and criticisms raised. What Happened: On Thursday, Altman took to X, formerly Twitter, and defended the exits of Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, Murati, and others from the company. He Altman justified the leadership changes as a natural part of the evolution of rapidly growing companies. "Leadership changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so quickly and are so demanding," Altman stated. He also acknowledged the abruptness of the situation, stating, "Obviously won't pretend it's natural for this one to be so abrupt, but we are not a normal company." See Also: Marques Brownlee Reviews Apple's iPhone 16 And Launches New App: 'This Is The Most Unfinished I've Ever Seen A New iPhone Launch' The CEO's statement appears to be in response to an old image of him with the now-departed members, marked with crosses to signify their exit, being circulated on social media. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also reacted to this image. The tech mogul co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left the company in 2018 over some differences. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: The leadership shakeup at OpenAI comes at a time when the company is reportedly transitioning from a non-profit to a for-profit benefit corporation. This shift is aimed at making the AI startup more appealing to potential investors. The restructuring could potentially value the company at $150 billion and result in a significant financial gain for Altman. Previously, it was reported that the transition to a for-profit model could pave the way for an initial public offering (IPO) in the future. However, this move has not been without controversy. Musk has already expressed his displeasure over the transition, particularly over the possibility of Altman receiving a 7% stake in the company. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Billionaire Tech CEO Makes Cameo In Zuckerberg's Meta Connect Show Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI CFO tells investors funding round should close by next week despite executive departures

OpenAI's Sora AI tool allows users to create AI-generated videos from text-based inputs. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar is looking to reassure its investors that the richly valued artificial intelligence startup is still in a strong position and is poised to close a big funding round soon, despite losing top talent this week. In an email to OpenAI's investors seen by CNBC, Friar addressed the departure of Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, who announced her departure on Wednesday. Later that day, Sam Altman said two top research executives, Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph, were also leaving. "I wanted to personally reach out following the news of Mira's departure from OpenAI," Friar wrote in the letter, which was viewed by CNBC. "While leadership changes are never easy, I want to ensure you have the full context." Friar added that, "We are incredibly proud of everything she's helped build," and said the San Francisco-based company still has a "talented leadership bench" to compete. OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft and recently partnered with Apple on its AI for iPhones, is in the midst of closing a $6.5 billion funding round, which should value the company at roughly $150 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. Thrive Capital is leading the round, and plans to invest $1 billion, according to sources. Friar said in the email that the funding round was oversubscribed and would close by next week. She said the team plans to host a series of calls with investors to introduce the group to key leaders from product and research teams. "Collectively, we remain laser-focused on bringing AI to everyone and building sustainable revenue models that fuel our operations and deliver value to our investors and employees," Friar wrote. The company is "excited for you to be with us as we enter our next chapter," she wrote. OpenAI declined to comment on the email. Murati's departure comes after six and a half years at the company. She briefly served as interim CEO last year after the board of directors abruptly fired Altman. When Altman was quickly reinstated, Murati returned to the role of CTO.