Racing towards a key period of IPO of about 85.2 billion U.S. dollars, OpenAI experiences a major personnel shakeup: the Chief Operating Officer was reassigned and the person in charge of AGI took a leave of absence due to illness.

With the key processes of OpenAI preparing for IPO gradually advancing, this artificial intelligence giant recently underwent a significant personnel restructuring. The Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI will be transitioning to a new role, while two other executives will be on leave for health reasons. According to reports, Brad Lightcap, who has long served as the Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI, will now focus on special projects and report directly to CEO Sam Altman. One of his main tasks will be overseeing the advancement of OpenAI in selling software to businesses through joint ventures with private equity firms. Denise Dresser, recently appointed as Chief Revenue Officer of OpenAI, will take over some of Lightcap's responsibilities. At the same time, Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch will be stepping down to focus on cancer recovery and plans to return to the company with a more limited scope of responsibilities once her health allows. The company is currently looking for a new Chief Marketing Officer. Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI responsible for the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), will also be taking several weeks off for medical leave to seek new treatments for a chronic neuroimmune disease, with plans to return to her position after recovery. It is understood that Simo, former CEO of Instacart, joined the OpenAI executive team last year to help shape the company's product development strategy. In recent weeks, she has played a key role in pushing the company to streamline its extensive service portfolio, develop a "super app" that integrates the chatbot Siasun Robot & Automation, programming tools, and web browsers, among others. She also recently advocated for the abandonment of "side tasks" development before the company stopped supporting its Sora AI video generator, and oversaw progress in testing ads in ChatGPT. "The timing is frustrating because we have such an exciting roadmap ahead waiting for the team to execute, and I hate the idea of missing even a minute," Simo said in a company memo discussing her decision to take a leave of absence. "But the company is in good hands, and we have an excellent leadership team ready to take over." Simo has been open about her long-term management of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which she has worked with throughout her career. "Throughout my tenure, in order to fully immerse myself in work, I have postponed medical checks and new treatment plans without taking a day off. Two weeks before taking leave, I took medical checks for the first time, and it is now evident that I have pushed myself too hard and really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health condition," she wrote in the memo. During Simo's absence, OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman will personally take over the product team to ensure the continuity of the company's core business and research pace. Other executives will also assist in managing her affairs during her leave, including Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, and Dresser. The changes at the top level come at a time when OpenAI is at its peak valuation of approximately $85.2 billion and is widely expected to go public by 2026. It's worth noting that the company just completed a $12.2 billion funding round this week. Meanwhile, the company is working to boost revenue by introducing ads in ChatGPT. OpenAI also faces increasing competition from Alphabet's Google and Anthropic PBC, with the latter expected to go public as early as this year. In a statement, OpenAI said, "We have a strong leadership team focused on our most important priorities: advancing cutting-edge research, expanding our global user base of nearly 1 billion, and deepening the implementation of enterprise-level applications. We are well-prepared to maintain continuity and momentum in execution." Looking back, this ChatGPT manufacturer is no stranger to executive shake-ups. In the months following Altman's brief dismissal at the end of 2023, the company faced a series of high-profile departures. Eventually, OpenAI underwent a comprehensive restructuring of its board and executive team and significantly expanded its leadership team, bringing in senior leaders with extensive experience in marketing, finance, and operations.