OpenAI President Greg Brockman Returns After Break to Lead on X

After a three-month hiatus, Greg Brockman returns to OpenAI as president, announcing that he will be “building OpenAI” on X.

Greg Brockman, one of the founders of OpenAI, has returned to the company as president, three months after saying he would be taking a break until the end of the year. He wrote on X that his trip was the “longest vacation” of his life and that he was now “back to building OpenAI.”

OpenAI valued itself at $157 billion in its most recent funding round, which concluded more than a month ago, prompting Brockman’s return.

While he was away, the company experienced the departure of numerous executives, and its plans to transition into a for-profit business, along with the decision to shut down some safety teams, garnered significant attention.

Mira Murati, who has been Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI for six and a half years, told the company at the end of September that she was leaving. The day before, both Bob McGrew (head of research) and Barret Zoph (VP of research) said they were leaving the company.

OpenAI Co-Founders and Key Leaders Leave for Anthropic

Co-founder Ilya Sutskever and former safety lead Jan Leike also left. They joined competitor Anthropic in May. Co-founder John Schulman also left, as did Lilian Weng, who recently left OpenAI after seven years as vice president of research and safety.

As CTO of OpenAI, Brockman worked with CEO Sam Altman when the company started up as a nonprofit in 2015. Brockman is a close friend of Altman.

Last year, Brockman temporarily resigned to protest Altman’s temporary firing. The board’s decision shocked and upset him, but Altman quickly received his reinstatement.