At a public meeting on Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denied that there were plans for him to receive a “giant equity stake” in the company, calling the information “untrue,” people involved said.
Altman and chief financial officer Sarah Friar both said in a meeting, conducted by video, that investors have raised concerns about Altman’s lack of business in the high-end artificial intelligence company that he co-founded almost nine years ago, said the person who asked. unnamed because the gathering is for employees only.
Regarding the potential acquisition of an equity stake, Altman said, “There are no current plans here,” the person said.
OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor told CNBC in a statement that while the board had spoken on the matter, there was no specific figure on the table.
“The board has discussed whether it will be beneficial for the company and our mission so that Sam is compensated with efforts, but no specific figures have been discussed or any decisions have been made,” Taylor said.
Thursday’s final meeting followed a board decision to consider restructuring the company into a for-profit business, according to people with knowledge of the matter. If the change happens, the nonprofit segment will remain a separate entity, said the person, who asked not to be named because no plans have been finalized.
As directors consider the future of OpenAI, key executives continue to exit.
On Wednesday, three executives announced their departures. OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, who briefly served as interim CEO, said she is leaving after six and a half years. Later in the day, research chief Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph, vice president of research, said they were leaving the company.
In an interview on Thursday at Italian Tech Week, Altman said, “I hope it will be a good transition for everyone involved and I hope OpenAI will be stronger, because we are all transitioning.”
Altman said his departure was unrelated to the company’s potential restructuring, contrary to some media reports.
“Most of the stuff I saw was also very wrong,” Altman said at the event in Turin, Italy. “But we have been thinking about it, our board has been independent for almost a year, because we are thinking about what is needed to reach the next stage. a new generation of leadership.”
Murati wrote in a memo to the company that he “stepped down because I wanted to make time and space to do my own exploration.” He said his focus will be ensuring a “smooth transition.”
Before Thursday’s move, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and former safety chief Jan Leike announced their departures in May. Founder John Schulman said last month that he was leaving to join rival Anthropic.
OpenAI, which is powered by Microsoftis now pursuing a funding round that would value the company at more than $150 billion, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Thrive Capital led the round and plans to invest $1 billion, and Tiger Global also plans to join.
While OpenAI has been in hyper-growth mode since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, it has also been plagued by controversy and executive departures, with some current and former employees concerned that the company is growing too fast to operate safely.
Altman was fired in November, before making a quick comeback. Almost all OpenAI employees signed an open letter saying they would leave in response to the board’s actions. After a few days, Altman returned to the company and Murati moved from interim CEO back to the role of CTO.
WATCH: Check out Altman
