The CTO of Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Mira Murati, steps down amid a flurry of executive exits

Mira Murati resigns as the Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft-backed OpenAI. Significantly contributing to OpenAI's progress, Murati announced the news in a post on X (formerly Twitter), expressing her wish to "create the time and space to do [her] own exploration."

Murati thanked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman in her statement, noting their joint accomplishment in expanding the frontiers of artificial intelligence. The resignations of two more top technical leaders, Barret Zoph, VP of Research, and Bob McGrew, Chief Research Officer, were disclosed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just hours following Murati's announcement. Their departures are the most recent in the company's succession of leadership changes.

These exits occur as OpenAI gets ready to close a big $6.5 billion funding round, which, according to a Reuters estimate, could put the company's valuation at $150 billion. According to the story, the financial agreement is contingent on OpenAI being reorganized into a for-profit benefit corporation, which would also give Altman ownership of the company. Even though these kinds of agreements frequently contain stipulations allowing investors to reevaluate terms in the event of significant leadership changes, it is unclear how Murati's departure will affect the current fundraising efforts.

Murati joined OpenAI in 2017 and has been with the company for more than six years. After Altman was temporarily removed from office by the board, she took over as CEO for a brief period of time. Murati was OpenAI's Vice President of Applied AI and Partnerships until taking on the role of CTO in May 2022. Key positions at Tesla and the augmented reality startup Leap Motion have also been a part of her career.

At OpenAI, Murati was well-known for her role as CTO. She frequently appeared in public with Altman to present significant breakthroughs, such as the introduction of the GPT-4o model, which could carry out realistic speech conversations.