Brad Lightcap, Chief Operating Officer at OpenAI, attends a conference at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, June 20, 2023.
Eric Gaillard | Reuters
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Monday that Brad Lightcap, the company’s chief operating officer, is expanding his role to oversee “business and day-to-day operations.”
Lightcap, who joined the company in 2018 and previously worked with CEO Sam Altman at Y Combinator, is leading “global deployment,” focusing on strategy, partnerships and infrastructure, OpenAI said in a blog post.
Altman is handing over a public-facing position to Lightcap as the company’s pressures intensify. As of last month, OpenAI was closing in on a $260 billion valuation, with a $40 billion investment by SoftBank. Part of the funding is expected to be used for OpenAI’s commitment to Stargate, a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle that was announced by President Donald Trump in January. The plan calls for billions of dollars to be invested in U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure.
In addition to Lighcap’s growing responsibilities, OpenAI said that Mark Chen, a six-year veteran of the company is taking on the expanded role of chief research officer, though Chen’s LinkedIn profile indicates he’s had the job since January. The post also said that Julia Villagra is now chief people officer, a job her LinkedIn profile says she’s had since June 2024.
Altman said in the post that part of Villagra’s job is to “ensure that OpenAI remains the top destination for people who want to build” artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which broadly refers to AI that is as smart or smarter than humans.
OpenAI faces intense competition in generative AI from other high-valued startups like Anthropic as well as tech giants including Alphabet and Microsoft, which has been the company’s top backer and key strategic partner.
OpenAI is also in a heated legal and public relations battle with Elon Musk, who controls rival startup xAI and is a central advisor to the Trump administration, with a potential to influence regulations in ways that favor his businesses.
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