This Week's Buzz in Silicon Valley: The million-dollar question about OpenAI
COLUMN Who leaves an executive role at a wildly popular "unicorn" valued at $150 billion just as it's about to turn profitable? This is the million-dollar, or 150 billion-dollar, question in Silicon Valley right now.
Last Wednesday, Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, released a written statement stating that after much reflection, she had decided to leave OpenAI.
"I'm stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration," she wrote.
Hours later, it became public that OpenAI's chief research officer, Bob McGrew, and vice president of research, Barret Zoph, were also leaving. Zoph said in a post on X that he was "exploring new opportunities," while McGrew mentioned in a separate post that it was "time for me to take a break."
At a tech conference, Sam Altman denied any connection between the recent departures of three senior OpenAI executives and the company's planned restructuring.
The restructuring of OpenAI aims to make the company less dependent on its non-profit arm. Transforming into a for-profit entity is designed to attract more investors by offering greater financial returns, allowing OpenAI to scale and commercialize its technologies more aggressively.
Meanwhile, on X, other executives were smoothing out possible questions about conflicts in the leadership team.
Swedish Peter Welinder, Vice President of Product and Partnerships at OpenAI, commented shortly in a post:
"When brilliant, kind, and mission-driven coworkers leave, I reflect on how lucky I've been to work and learn from them. And how lucky I am to keep building and learning with current and future ones. True privilege."
Shortly before that, Welinder had shared the co-founder Greg Brockman's post on X, which started like this:
"I have deep appreciation for what each of Barret, Bob, and Mira brought to OpenAI. We worked together for many years, and we are all members of the team that helped make OpenAI what it is today. They each brought something different to the table. A personal anecdote about each…"
Yes, the recent events at OpenAI raise questions. Here are some remarks overheard by SVNB:
"It is a bizarre coincidence that Mira and others left right before OpenAI decided to become profitable. "
"Executives only leave a wildly popular unicorn that supposedly has a $150 billion valuation as a last possible resort."
While becoming a for-profit company is not expected until next year, OpenAI is in talks for a new round of investment that could value the company at as much as $150 billion, a significant leap from its last round at $80 billion.
SVNB attempted to reach Peter Welinder for a comment but (not surprisingly) without any response. Maybe next time, which could be in half an hour. In Silicon Valley, time moves fast, but at OpenAI, it's moving even faster.