When OpenAI hired Dennis Dresser from Slack as chief revenue officer in December, top executive Fiji Simo said in a blog post that Dresser would “help make AI useful, reliable, and accessible to businesses everywhere.”
Four months later, Executive Director Brad Lightcap left the company for a new role focused on “special projects,” and Dresser took on additional responsibilities.
Now, with Dresser, Simo and Lightcap all gone, OpenAI’s leadership is in turmoil as the artificial intelligence company tries to justify its $852 billion valuation and prepare for what is expected to be a historic IPO. Dresser announced his abrupt retirement on Thursday, two days after Lightcap said he was ending his eight-year tenure as ChatGPT creator to “start something new.”
The talent exodus will put added pressure on CEO Sam Altman and fellow co-founder Greg Brockman to provide stability at a time when investors are already growing concerned about competition. google humanity, increasing adoption of low-cost open-weight models; space x Stock prices are volatile during the first two months on the market.
OpenAI confidentially filed an IPO prospectus in June, but has not disclosed a timeline for future product offerings.
“Management leaving OpenAI ahead of 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 will likely walk away from his large salary package by leaving OpenAI in less than a year.
“It’s bad news for OpenAI unless the departing executives are ‘reborn’ at their next company,” McCormick wrote.
An OpenAI representative pointed to CNBC Brockman’s statement on Thursday, when Dali Razik, former chief operating officer of cybersecurity firm Wiz, was arrested. google He was acquired earlier this year for $32 billion and has a new chief revenue officer.
Brockman said Dresser led the revenue group through “the formative years of the business,” and Razik “will translate what we’ve learned into repeatable execution as we build a complete system to make AI broadly useful to people and businesses.”
Dresser and Lightcap are the latest in a recent spate of major company exits. Simo stepped down as CEO last year. instacart To join OpenAI, he announced in July that he was leaving his position to focus on recovering from a “severe exacerbation of a chronic illness.” Four other executives left OpenAI for Science in April, including vice president Kevin Weil and head of marketing Kate Ruesch. Ruesch retired to focus on recovering from cancer.
OpenAI’s financial backers were surprised by Dresser’s announcement and requested anonymity to speak freely about the matter, according to two current investors. They said chaos is part of OpenAI’s rapidly changing culture.
Former OpenAI executive Dennis Dresser during TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, October 29, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Mr. Dresser was hired in December after more than 10 years in senior corporate roles and establishing a strong reputation within the company. sales force. She was tasked with growing OpenAI’s enterprise division, a high-margin arm of the business that competes directly with Anthropic.
Brockman told employees Thursday that run-rate revenue increased more than 20% month over month in July, including a 32% increase for enterprise customers, according to an internal Slack message shared with CNBC.
“We are now at a tipping point. Next-generation models will change not only how individual workflows are done, but what it means to start and run a company,” Brockman wrote. “Our opportunity is to bring these capabilities to businesses across the economy.”
OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar will hold a meeting with investors on Friday, according to a person familiar with the meeting. The event had already been planned, but Mr. Friar is expected to work on a shake-up of the executive team. Mr. Brockman also plans to attend to discuss company strategy, said the person, who requested anonymity because the details are confidential.
Despite the recent turmoil, OpenAI is touting its momentum to enterprise customers. The company announced Thursday that under Mr. Dresser’s leadership, its enterprise business has doubled from a year ago to 2 million customers.
“I’ve never seen such widespread conviction within the industry so quickly and consistently,” Dresser told CNBC in April, as he was completing his first 90 days on the job. He said at the time that corporate revenue accounted for 40% of the company’s revenue and that it was “on track to reach consumer parity by the end of 2026.”
Days before that interview, Dresser was selected to take over many of Lightcap’s responsibilities, further raising her profile within the company.
long-standing instability
Mr. Dresser’s successor, Mr. Rajic, was introduced to OpenAI through Thrive founder Josh Kushner, according to a person familiar with the matter. Thrive is one of OpenAI’s most prominent backers.
OpenAI has long had a fast-hiring, quick-firing culture, according to two former employees who requested anonymity to speak freely about the matter. One of them described the environment as being like a pressure cooker.
Instability at the top is nothing new to OpenAI or Altman.
In 2023, Altman was abruptly removed from his role as CEO after the board determined that he “did not consistently communicate openly.” Days later, with investors panicking and employees threatening to leave the company en masse, Mr. Altman was back at the helm.
Altman’s brief dismissal, which some OpenAI employees have called “sudden,” has stuck with him ever since.
The case was brought up repeatedly during the high-profile Musk v. Altman trial 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 and accuse him of being untrustworthy.
“I was not trying to mislead the board,” Altman testified on the witness stand in federal court in Oakland, California.
Elon Musk appeared in federal court in Oakland, California on April 30, 2026. Elon Musk, who invested in OpenAI early on believing it would become a nonprofit, is now suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, accusing him of being deceived by developing OpenAI into a for-profit company.
Benjamin Fanjoy | Getty Images
Musk’s lawyers also pressed Altman on several OpenAI executives who had expressed concerns about Altman’s actions. They included human CEO Dario Amodei previously served as research leader at OpenAI. Mr. Altman said Mr. Amodei accused him of “a number of things.”
At trial, Brockman was heavily criticized for his reputation as a leader. Musk’s lawyers questioned him about a memo prepared by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Satskeva that highlighted problems with Brockman’s performance and management.
One 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 took too long to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and its executives, but Musk vowed to appeal the ruling.
This week’s events haven’t helped Altman’s cause.
Following Lightcap’s departure, Altman thanked his longtime colleague in a post on X, writing, “I’m excited to collaborate on what’s next.”
There were no such posts after Dresser’s announcement. Rather, Altman’s only comments about X on Thursday concerned a topic he is generally happy to discuss: his company’s AI models.
In response to a post on the OpenAI account about a preview of the new GPT-5.6 model’s “Ultrafast mode,” which is “up to 14x faster,” Altman wrote “/ultrafast.”
WATCH: OpenAI revenue chief Dennis Dresser resigns, second major executive resignation in recent days
