How do we explain OpenAI’s executive exodus?
How do we explain OpenAI’s executive exodus?
我们该如何解读 OpenAI 的高管离职潮？
OpenAI is the original frontier lab. Its latest publicly released model, GPT-5.6, is one of the most capable and efficient on the market. Its desktop app for agentic coding and workplace tasks has seen its user base grow by about 15 million subscribers in the last two months. OpenAI has also already filed to go public. So why are all the executives heading out the door? OpenAI 是前沿人工智能实验室的鼻祖。其最新发布的模型 GPT-5.6 是目前市场上能力最强、效率最高的模型之一。其用于智能编程和办公任务的桌面应用在过去两个月内增加了约 1500 万订阅用户。OpenAI 也已经提交了上市申请。那么，为什么所有高管都在纷纷离职呢？
Since the turn of the year, more than a dozen executives have departed, including CEO Sam Altman’s top deputy, the chief operating officer, a chief revenue officer, its chief marketing officer, as well as several different team leads. Yesterday, news broke that Chris Malone, the company’s head of data centers, left the company last week after joining in March 2025. 自今年年初以来，已有十几位高管离职，包括 CEO Sam Altman 的得力助手、首席运营官、首席营收官、首席营销官以及多位团队负责人。昨天有消息称，公司数据中心负责人 Chris Malone 在 2025 年 3 月入职后，已于上周离职。
Some of those departures were due to health issues, and others were due to reorganization that occurred as Altman sought to cut expensive “side projects” and focus on revenue-generating opportunities. Still, Malone’s unexplained departure is striking, if only because OpenAI’s primary advantage over rivals like Anthropic or SpaceX is its investment in compute. 部分离职是由于健康原因，另一些则是因为 Altman 试图削减昂贵的“副业”并专注于创收机会而进行的重组。尽管如此，Malone 的离职原因不明仍令人震惊，毕竟 OpenAI 相较于 Anthropic 或 SpaceX 等竞争对手的主要优势在于其对算力的投入。
OpenAI noted to TechCrunch that the departure follows a reorganization of the company’s infrastructure team, which is now led by vice president Sachin Katti, whereas Malone once reported directly to president Greg Brockman. It’s not surprising that a senior executive might leave a company if he suddenly finds himself several rungs further down the ladder. OpenAI 向 TechCrunch 表示，此次离职是公司基础设施团队重组的结果。该团队目前由副总裁 Sachin Katti 领导，而 Malone 此前是直接向总裁 Greg Brockman 汇报的。如果一位高管突然发现自己在职级阶梯上被降了好几级，那么他选择离开公司也就不足为奇了。
The frontier lab declined to comment on broader changes at the company, but it seems apparent that Brockman is reasserting his leadership. As co-founder and president, he played important roles building OpenAI’s early infrastructure, but he was relieved of most management responsibilities in 2019, when Altman became CEO. 这家前沿实验室拒绝就公司更广泛的变动发表评论，但显而易见的是，Brockman 正在重申他的领导地位。作为联合创始人兼总裁，他在构建 OpenAI 早期基础设施方面发挥了重要作用，但在 2019 年 Altman 出任 CEO 后，他被解除了大部分管理职责。
After that, Brockman played a disruptive role at the company, according to Karen Hao’s book “Empire of AI.” His contributions to individual projects like GPT-4 were undeniable, but he also seeded internal rivalries that helped kick off the “Blip” in 2023, when the company’s board briefly ousted Altman as CEO. Brockman would take a brief sabbatical in 2024 before returning to the company. Today, the infrastructure and product teams report to him. 据 Karen Hao 的著作《人工智能帝国》（Empire of AI）记载，此后 Brockman 在公司内部扮演了一个具有破坏性的角色。他对比 GPT-4 等具体项目的贡献不可否认，但他同时也埋下了内部竞争的种子，这在一定程度上引发了 2023 年的“小插曲”，当时公司董事会曾短暂罢免了 Altman 的 CEO 职务。Brockman 在 2024 年短暂休假后重返公司。如今，基础设施和产品团队均向他汇报。
“I like to say that everyone reports to Greg at the end of the day,” Thibault Sottiaux, who leads the company’s API and app offerings, told TechCrunch. “我喜欢说，归根结底，每个人都向 Greg 汇报，”负责公司 API 和应用业务的 Thibault Sottiaux 告诉 TechCrunch。
The specter of the company’s IPO hangs over everything. In June, OpenAI said it had filed going-public disclosures confidentially with the SEC. Tapping into public markets would be a boon for the capital-hungry frontier lab, but it also brings the prospect of disclosing its financials around the same time as rival Anthropic, which is also planning its public debut. Anthropic, however, is reportedly profitable, while OpenAI is reportedly seeing its losses grow along with its revenue. 公司 IPO 的阴影笼罩着一切。6 月，OpenAI 表示已向美国证券交易委员会（SEC）秘密提交了上市披露文件。进入公开市场对这家渴求资本的前沿实验室来说是一大利好，但也意味着它可能需要与同样计划上市的竞争对手 Anthropic 在同一时期披露财务状况。然而，据报道 Anthropic 已经实现盈利，而 OpenAI 的亏损却随着营收的增长而扩大。
Now, OpenAI’s IPO isn’t expected until 2027; the average company that files confidentially for an IPO usually hits the trading floor within about five months; SpaceX did so in less than two. Altman’s public comments about a bad past 12 months at the company and the internal reorganization jibes with a narrative that the company got over its skis with its IPO filing and is now reshaping the organization to make more money and carry less dead weight. 目前，OpenAI 的 IPO 预计要到 2027 年才会进行；通常秘密提交 IPO 申请的公司会在五个月内上市；SpaceX 甚至不到两个月就完成了。Altman 此前公开评论称公司过去 12 个月表现不佳，结合内部重组来看，这印证了一种说法：公司在 IPO 申请上操之过急，现在正通过重塑组织架构来增加盈利并精简冗员。
There’s a common cycle for some tech startups: Brilliant founders create the product, then bring in an experienced CEO to scale the company and prep it to go public. There was a sense of that dynamic when OpenAI brought in now-departed execs like Fidji Simo and Kevin Weil, who were veterans of multiple tech businesses — and now we’re seeing it again as Brockman’s influence grows. 一些科技初创公司存在一个常见的周期：天才创始人创造产品，然后引入经验丰富的 CEO 来扩大公司规模并为上市做准备。当 OpenAI 引入 Fidji Simo 和 Kevin Weil 等现已离职的高管时，这种动态曾显现过——他们都是多家科技企业的资深人士。而现在，随着 Brockman 影响力的增强，我们再次看到了这一幕。
Before OpenAI, he was best known for building out Stripe’s business, and internally for championing the company’s go-to-market efforts. With so much high-level turnover, OpenAI will need someone to fill the vacuum. The company will also need to trim its sails ahead of the IPO, boosting revenue and cutting costs wherever possible. For both problems, Brockman’s influence may be rising at the perfect time. 在加入 OpenAI 之前，他最出名的是在 Stripe 建立业务，并在内部推动公司的市场推广工作。面对如此多的人事变动，OpenAI 需要有人填补真空。公司还需要在 IPO 前“缩减帆面”，尽可能增加收入并削减成本。对于这两个问题，Brockman 影响力的上升或许正逢其时。