When OpenAI hired Denise Dresser from Slack to be its chief revenue officer in December, Fidji Simo, a senior executive, said in a blog post that Dresser’s “experience will help us make AI useful, reliable, and accessible to businesses everywhere.” Four months later, Dresser took on additional responsibilities when chief operating officer Brad Lightcap left that position for a new role focused on “special projects.” chaos as the artificial intelligence company tries to justify its $852 billion valuation and prepare for what is expected to be a historic initial public offering. Dresser announced his sudden departure on Thursday, two days after Lightcap said he would end an eight-year stint at the ChatGPT creator to “start something new.” The talent exodus puts even more pressure on CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman, the company’s chairman, to project stability at a time when investors are already increasingly concerned about competition from Google and Anthropic, the increased adoption of lower-cost open models and SpaceX’s volatile stock price in its first two months. in the market. OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus in June, but has not provided a timeline for a future offering. “Execs leaving OpenAI ahead of its IPO is a big red flag,” Kevin McCormick, founder of AI startup SignAudit.AI, wrote in a post on X on Thursday. He added that Dresser likely gave up a large pay package by leaving OpenAI after less than a year. “If the departing executives are not ‘compensated’ by the next company, it is bad news for OpenAI,” McCormick wrote. An OpenAI representative pointed CNBC to Brockman’s statement Thursday, after the company named Dali Rajic, former chief operating officer of cybersecurity company Wiz, which Google acquired for $32 billion earlier this year, as its new chief revenue officer. Brockman said Dresser led the revenue group through a “training period for the business” and that Rajic will “turn what we’ve learned into repeatable execution as we build the entire system to make AI broadly useful to people and businesses.” Dresser and Lightcap are the latest in a recent string of big-name departures. Simo, who last year left her job as CEO of Instacart to join OpenAI, said in July that she was stepping away to focus on recovery after a “severe exacerbation of a chronic illness.” Four other executives, including Kevin Weil, vice president of OpenAI for Science, and chief marketing officer Kate Rouch, departed in April. Rouch left to focus on cancer recovery. OpenAI’s financial backers were surprised by Dresser’s announcement, according to two current investors, who asked not to be identified so they could speak freely about the matter. They said chaos is part of OpenAI’s fast-moving culture. Denise Dresser, former OpenAI executive, during TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, October 29, 2024.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDresser was hired in December after establishing a strong reputation at the company by spending more than a decade in senior roles at Salesforce. He was tasked with growing the OpenAI business unit, a part of the high-margin business that directly faces Anthropic. Brockman told employees Thursday that run-rate revenue increased more than 20% month over month in July, including 32% growth for commercial customers, according to an internal Slack message shared with CNBC. “We are now at an inflection point: the next generation of models will change not only how individual workflows are performed, but also what it means to build and run a business,” Brockman wrote. “Our opportunity is to bring those capabilities to companies across the economy.” OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar plans to hold a meeting with investors on Friday, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The event was already planned, but Friar is expected to address the top management restructuring. Brockman will also attend to discuss the company’s strategy, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the details were confidential. Despite the recent turmoil, OpenAI is touting its momentum to corporate customers. The company said Thursday that under Dresser’s leadership, the enterprise business grew to 2 million customers, doubling from the previous year. “I have never seen this level of conviction spread so quickly and consistently within industries,” Dresser told CNBC in April, as he wrapped up his first 90 days on the job. He said at the time that the business accounted for 40% of the company’s revenue and was “on track to achieve consumer parity by the end of 2026.” Days before that interview, Dresser had been tapped to take on many of Lightcap’s responsibilities, further raising his profile at the company. Years of instability Rajic, Dresser’s successor, was introduced to OpenAI through Thrive founder Josh Kushner, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who was not authorized to discuss the recruiting process. Thrive has been one of the most prominent sponsors of OpenAI. OpenAI has long had a culture of hiring fast and firing fast, according to two former employees, who asked not to be identified so they could speak freely about the matter. One of them described the environment as a pressure cooker. Instability at the top is nothing new for OpenAI or Altman. In 2023, Altman was hastily removed from his CEO position after the company’s board of directors determined that he was “not always truthful in his communications” with them. Days later, with investors panicking and employees threatening to leave en masse, Altman took over again. Altman’s brief ouster, which some OpenAI employees refer to as “the problem,” has hung over him ever since. The incident came up repeatedly during the high-profile Musk v. Altman in May. Lawyers representing Elon Musk, who sued OpenAI, Altman and Brockman in 2024 over a dispute over the company’s corporate structure, used Altman’s firing as a way to cast doubt on his character, accusing him of being untrustworthy. “I wasn’t trying to mislead the board,” Altman testified from the witness stand in federal court in Oakland, California. Elon Musk arrives at federal court in Oakland, California, on April 30, 2026. Elon Musk invested in OpenAI early on believing it would be a nonprofit, but is now suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for allegedly deceiving him by turning OpenAI into a for-profit company. Benjamin Fanjoy | Getty Images Musk’s lawyers also pressed Altman on several OpenAI executives who expressed concerns about his behavior. Among them was Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who previously served as research leader at OpenAI. Altman said Amodei had accused him of “a lot of things.” At trial, Brockman was questioned about his own reputation as a leader. Musk’s lawyers asked him about a memo prepared by Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, that highlighted problems with Brockman’s performance and management. A lawyer asked Brockman to confirm that his management style had been heavily criticized by OpenAI employees. Brockman responded: “I certainly don’t agree with that characterization.” After three weeks of testimony, an advisory jury said Musk waited too long to file his lawsuit against OpenAI and its executives, although Musk vowed to appeal the ruling. This week’s events have not helped Altman’s cause. Following Lightcap’s departure, Altman thanked his old colleague in a post on X and wrote that he was “excited to be working together on what’s next.” There was no such publication after Dresser’s announcement. Rather, Altman’s only comment about X on Thursday had to do with a topic he generally likes to discuss: his company’s AI models. In response to a post from the OpenAI account about a preview of “ultrafast mode,” the new GPT-5.6 model “at up to 14x speed,” Altman wrote, “/ultrafast.”
