OpenAI Operations Chief Changes Jobs Amid IPO Preparations

OpenAI’s chief operating officer is reportedly switching roles as part of a larger leadership overhaul.

Brad Lightcap is set to take on new duties centered around special projects, the Financial Times (FT) reported Friday (April 3), citing an internal company memo.

The report, which describes Lightgap as one of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s top lieutenants, says the executive will oversee the company’s effort to promote AI adoption among businesses.

Denise Dresser, who came to OpenAI from Salesforce as chief revenue officer, will take on most of Lightcap’s past responsibilities, the report said. Meanwhile, Kate Rouch, chief marketing officer, will step down from her post as she recovers from cancer. FT said she is expected to return in a different role, with OpenAI now seeking a new marketing head.

Also taking temporary, medical-related leave is applications chief Fidji Simo, who said in the memo that she is seeking treatment for a preexisting condition.

“We have a strong leadership team focused on our biggest priorities: advancing frontier research, growing our global user base of nearly 1bn users, and powering enterprise use cases,” OpenAI said in a statement.

“We’re well-positioned to keep executing with continuity and momentum,” the company added.

The changes come on top of the $122 billion funding round OpenAI wrapped on March 31, valuing the company at $852 billion. The company also announced it was working on “unified AI superapp” and that its enterprise business will be as big as its consumer business before the end of the year.

As FT noted, OpenAI has in its preparations to go public indicated an interest in concentrating on its core business lines. That meant halting plans for an adult-themed chatbot, and closing down its Sora video-generation model.

However, two days after the funding round, OpenAI reached an agreement to acquire TBPN, a talk show popular in Silicon Valley and the company’s first move into broadcasting.

That deal came after Simo had urged employees to focus on core business lines, telling them the company “cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests.”

“That makes the TBPN acquisition look like more than a standard media buy,” PYMNTS wrote. “It suggests OpenAI sees control of distribution, influence and audience access as part of the AI race itself.”

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