Sudden Executive Shake-up at OpenAI on the Eve of IPO: COO Lightcap Reassigned

April 4 news—According to Bloomberg, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap has had a position adjustment, Chief Marketing Officer Kate Roché and AGI development lead Figi Simo will temporarily step down due to health reasons. At a crucial stage as the company moves toward an IPO, this series of changes marks an important management restructuring.

According to an internal memo, Lightcap will shift to "special projects" and report directly to CEO Altman, focusing on advancing enterprise software sales through cooperation with private equity firms. OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Denys Dreller will take over some of his responsibilities.

OpenAI CMO Kate Roché will step down for cancer treatment and may return with more limited responsibilities based on her health status; the company has initiated a search for her successor. Figi Simo, head of AGI development, will also go on leave for treatment of a neuro-immune disease and is expected to return after a few weeks.

This round of executive changes comes at a key juncture for OpenAI: while preparing for a potential IPO, the company this week completed a $122 billion financing round (about 841.156 billion yuan at current rates), bringing its valuation to $852 billion (about 5.87 trillion yuan at current rates).

At the same time, the company is seeking to boost revenue by introducing ads in ChatGPT and faces competitive pressure from Google and Anthropic, the latter also possibly going public this year.

OpenAI stated that its current management team remains focused on three key priorities—advancing cutting-edge research, expanding its user base towards 1 billion, and promoting enterprise-grade application deployments—while maintaining strong execution capabilities.

This is not the first time OpenAI has experienced management turbulence. Since Altman’s brief departure as CEO at the end of 2023, the company has seen several rounds of executive departures, followed by a board and management restructuring that brought in more leaders with market, financial, and operational experience.

Former Instacart CEO Figi Simo joined OpenAI last year, responsible for product strategy. Recently, she has driven the company to consolidate fragmented operations, creating an integrated “super app” for chat robots, programming tools, and the browser, while leading cuts to “side projects”—halting the Sora video generation tool and driving ad testing within ChatGPT.

In an internal memo, Simo said that leaving now was “extremely anxiety-inducing” as the team is working towards a highly promising product direction. “I don't want to miss any progress, but the company is currently in the very capable hands of an outstanding team.”

She also stated that she had worked long-term with illness, continually postponing exams and treatment, and recent medical evaluations indicate her body is nearing its limit, requiring a new treatment plan to stabilize her condition.

During her leave, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman will take charge of product operations, while Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, and Denys Dreller will also jointly share related responsibilities.