Since the beginning of this year, more than a dozen executives have left OpenAI, including a senior deputy to CEO Sam Altman, the chief operating officer, the chief revenue officer, the head of marketing, and several team leaders. This comes as the company attempts to turn the growth of its products into clearer revenue and scale back what Altman described as costly side projects.
The latest departure to attract attention was that of Chris Malone, head of data centers at OpenAI, who left the company in the week before the report was published, after joining it in March 2025. OpenAI did not provide a personal explanation for his departure, but said the move followed a reorganization of the infrastructure team, which is now led by Vice President Sachin Kati. Malone had reported directly to President Greg Brockman, meaning that the restructuring fundamentally changed his position within the organization.
Not Every Departure Indicates the Same Crisis
The article does not offer a single explanation for all the departures. Some were linked to health problems, while others resulted from a reorganization through which Altman sought to eliminate costly projects not directly connected to generating revenue. Therefore, not every executive departure can be considered an independent indication of a problem within the company.
However, the timing of these departures remains significant, particularly because OpenAI is operating under intense pressure. The company says its latest publicly available model, GPT-5.6, is among the most capable and efficient models on the market, while the number of subscribers to its desktop application dedicated to agentic programming and work tasks grew by about 15 million subscribers over two months. At the same time, operating leading models and building data centers require substantial capital spending, making financial management and operational execution part of the technological competition itself.
Brockman’s Rising Role
The report’s interpretation is that Greg Brockman is reasserting his influence within the company. As a co-founder and president, Brockman helped build OpenAI’s early infrastructure, but lost most of his managerial responsibilities in 2019 when Altman became CEO. Later, Karen Hao’s book Empire of AI described his role as influential and a source of internal divisions, while acknowledging that his contributions to projects such as GPT-4 were substantial.
The report also links Brockman to the turmoil that preceded what was called the “flash” in 2023, when the company’s board briefly removed Altman from his position. Brockman took a short leave in 2024 before returning to the company. In the current structure, the infrastructure and product teams report to him, while Tibo Sautio, who leads the API and application offerings, said that everyone ultimately reports to Brockman.
An IPO Changes the Company’s Calculations
The potential public-offering plan adds another layer to the reorganization. OpenAI said in June that it had submitted confidential disclosures to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, in preparation for becoming a public company. Access to public markets would give a laboratory that relies heavily on capital an additional source of funding, but it would also require the disclosure of financial results at a time when Anthropic, its main competitor, may be preparing for a similar public offering.
According to the report, Anthropic is said to be profitable, while OpenAI’s losses are increasing alongside the growth of its revenue. OpenAI is not currently expected to go public before 2027, although the average time between confidential filing and the start of trading is about five months, while SpaceX took less than two months, according to the comparison included in the article. This gap does not prove that OpenAI’s plan has failed, but it indicates that a confidential filing is not a guarantee that an offering is imminent or that its conditions have been completed.
What Does This Mean in Practice?
The actual change is not limited to the names of those who have left the company; it lies in the redistribution of power between leadership seeking to expand revenue and reduce expenses, and a co-founder whose influence over products and infrastructure is growing. This could help OpenAI unify decision-making in areas most closely tied to its competitive position, but it also raises questions about management stability, the ability to retain expertise, and the clarity of responsibilities ahead of any public offering.
Nevertheless, some parts of the picture remain unresolved. OpenAI declined to comment on the broader changes, and the source did not provide a direct explanation for every departure or detailed financial data proving the extent of the pressure. Therefore, the conclusion regarding Brockman’s rise and the company’s recalibration should be understood as an analytical reading based on the sequence of departures, the reorganization, and the offering plan—not as an official announcement of a final change in the leadership model.