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- OpenAI said in a blog post on Monday that COO Brad Lightcap will now oversee “business and day-to-day operations.”
- The company also said that Mark Chen is assuming the job of chief research officer and Julia Villagra is becoming chief people officer.
OpenAI said on Monday that operating chief Brad Lightcap is expanding his role to oversee the company’s “business and day-to-day operations,” as CEO Sam Altman shifts his focus to research and products.
Lightcap, who joined the company in 2018 and previously worked with Altman at Y Combinator, is leading “global deployment,” with responsibility over strategy, partnerships and infrastructure, OpenAI said in a blog post.
Altman is handing over a public-facing position to Lightcap as the company’s pressures intensify. As of last month, OpenAI was closing in on a $260 billion valuation, with a $40 billion investment by SoftBank. Part of the funding is expected to be used for OpenAI’s commitment to Stargate, a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle that was announced by President Donald Trump in January. The plan calls for billions of dollars to be invested in U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure.
In addition to Lighcap’s growing responsibilities, OpenAI said that Mark Chen, a six-year veteran of the company is taking on the expanded role of chief research officer, though Chen’s LinkedIn profile indicates he’s had the job since January. The post also said that Julia Villagra is now chief people officer, a job her LinkedIn profile says she’s had since June 2024.
Altman said in the post that part of Villagra’s job is to “ensure that OpenAI remains the top destination for people who want to build” artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which broadly refers to AI that is as smart or smarter than humans.
OpenAI faces intense competition in generative AI from other high-valued startups like Anthropic as well as tech giants including Alphabet and Microsoft, which has been the company’s top backer and key strategic partner.
OpenAI is also in a heated legal and public relations battle with Elon Musk, who controls rival startup xAI and is a central advisor to the Trump administration, with a potential to influence regulations in ways that favor his businesses. Musk was among OpenAI’s co-founders, when it was a nonprofit research lab, before having a public split with the company and Altman.
Meanwhile, Altman has been dealing with instability in the company’s top ranks as OpenAI seeks to become a for-profit entity. In 2024, Mira Murati, who had been CTO, announced her departure from the company after six and a half years. OpenAI hasn’t hired a replacement.
The same day Murati left, research chief Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph, a research vice president, also announced their departures. Murati went on to form her own competing AI startup, Thinking Machines, with a founding team of some ex-OpenAI employees.
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