OpenAI's CTO Mira Murati Resigns Amid Executive Departures

Highlights

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, along with two other key executives, resigns amidst ongoing fundraising and restructuring efforts at the AI company.

In a significant shake-up at OpenAI, three top technical leaders, including Indian-origin Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati, have announced their resignations. The departures come at a critical moment for the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence company, which is currently navigating through executive transitions, ongoing fundraising, and internal restructuring.

Mira Murati, who joined OpenAI as "VP of Applied AI and Partnerships" in December 2020, was promoted to CTO in May 2022. Her resignation, announced via a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), comes as OpenAI negotiates a major $6.5 billion financing round. This round, which could value the company at a staggering $150 billion, is contingent upon significant changes to the company's corporate structure. Alongside Murati, VP of Research Barret Zoph and Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew also revealed their plans to step down, making these high-profile exits part of a broader trend of executive turnover at the AI firm.

Murati has been a key figure at OpenAI, often appearing alongside Altman as the public face of the company, especially during major product launches. Most notably, she led the presentation when OpenAI introduced its GPT-4o model in May, a major advancement in AI capable of engaging in realistic voice conversations.

"I'm stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration," Murati said in her post on X, signalling her desire to pursue new opportunities beyond OpenAI.

Although Murati is still negotiating the terms of her exit, it's unclear if her departure, along with Zoph’s and McGrew’s, will impact the company's ongoing fundraising efforts. Some fundraising documents reportedly include a "material adverse change" clause, which allows investors to pull out of a deal if significant changes occur that could negatively affect the company's operations or valuation.

In response to these recent resignations, CEO Sam Altman took to X to express his thoughts, noting that Murati had not informed him of her plans to leave in advance. According to Altman, Murati wanted to step down during a time when the company was thriving, acknowledging that "there is never a good time" for such decisions.

As OpenAI moves forward, Altman has already announced several internal promotions, with Matt Knight taking over as Chief Information Security Officer, Josh Achiam assuming the role of Head of Mission Alignment, and Mark Chen being elevated to Senior Vice President of Research. The wave of executive exits is not new to OpenAI. In August, co-founder John Schulman announced his move to rival AI company Anthropic, while another co-founder, Greg Brockman, revealed he was taking a sabbatical until the end of the year. Chief Scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever also left the company earlier in May.