OpenAI loses even more executives ahead of the alleged IPO
OpenAI is going just great! The flagship of the AI bubble — I mean, AI revolution. Advancing by leaps and bounds toward the big investor payoff — the initial public offering on the stock market! When all that imaginary private company equity gets a proper dollar value at last! It’ll be amazing! If…
OpenAI is going just great! The flagship of the AI bubble — I mean, AI revolution. Advancing by leaps and bounds toward the big investor payoff — the initial public offering on the stock market! When all that imaginary private company equity gets a proper dollar value at last! It’ll be amazing! If anyone’s left to run the offering. Another OpenAI executive left just yesterday — Chris Malone, OpenAI’s Head of Data Centers. [WSJ, archive] It looks like Malone got reorganised out. OpenAI said in a statement: Earlier this year, we reorganized our infrastructure organization to support the scale and pace of our work. We have a strong, deeply experienced data center team in place, with clear leadership and the technical expertise to execute our plans. That would be more reassuring to potential IPO investors if OpenAI hadn’t been haemorrhaging C-level staff. The company’s lost 13 executives just in 2026. [Business Insider, archive] OpenAI President Greg Brockman spoke to CNBC about why so many executives were leaving — after dodging the question for a couple of minutes: [CNBC, video] I actually think that the difference between OpenAI and other organisations is that we’re so much in the spotlight, so every departure gets scrutinised in a way that it doesn’t otherwise. I actually don’t think it’s that atypical how we operate and the longevity of people. But I would say that we have an amazing leadership bench and I’m super excited about the team we’re working with. I’m sure you are, Greg. I’m also sure you can tell us who it was who so unfairly put OpenAI in the spotlight, just as you’re trying to do an IPO. These former executives are leaving a ton of OpenAI equity on the table, just before the supposed IPO payoff. What do they know that we don’t? They’ll know a lot of details. But we do have the broad outline — OpenAI’s revenues are just not enough to cover the financial promises. We said in January how OpenAI has $80 billion of debts due this year — payable in actual money, not OpenAI shares. Bills that it’s been putting off since 2024. OpenAI does not have the cash flow to pay those bills in time. There are just not enough customers, paying enough money, and there are not going to be. Consumers can’t fill the hole, and enterprise customers are already choking on this year’s price rises. OpenAI can probably kite this year’s bills to next year. But not longer — they’ve already got another $50 billion due next year. In, again, actual dollars. Then there’s all the data centres OpenAI is getting built for them with hundreds of billions of dollars of other people’s money. And the rest of the AI bubble companies need that OpenAI cash flowing to pay their own bills. So OpenAI needs to get it together to IPO — and make their cash gap everyone else’s problem. SpaceX managed an IPO. Anthropic is also trying to exit with an IPO. OpenAI filed a draft S-1 with the SEC in June but it might not have a final version until next year. What happens if OpenAI can’t IPO soon? They’ll need to do one last investment round. If there’s anyone left to burn even more money. SoftBank is running short. While OpenAI is still burning money as fast as they can. Some time in 2027, OpenAI will not quite be able to pay all its bills on time. Sam Altman will reassure the world that everything is fine! The revolution is here! It’s already the singularity! Just send us even more money! Stop worrying so much! Video — PodcastSource: Pivot to AI — Published — Category: Business