OpenAI's executive exodus is now at least 14 people — and the count could keep climbing.
Business Insider had tallied 13 senior managers and key leaders as of August 21. Then, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chris Malone, the company's head of data centers, left last week. Malone, who joined in March 2025, was leading OpenAI's data center expansion.
The departures span business, product, security, ethics, research, and infrastructure. The list includes former COO Brad Lightcap, applications chief Fidji Simo, chief revenue officer Denise Dresser, former CMO Kate Rouch, former CPO Kevin Weil, and security systems lead Johannes Heidecke.
The reasons vary. Lightcap is prepping to start a company. Some left for health reasons. Others got caught up in reorgs or project shutdowns. Hardware chief Caitlin Kalinowski, meanwhile, resigned over OpenAI's partnership with the Pentagon. Some insiders see the whole shuffle as intentional — a deliberate reset at the top.
OpenAI quietly filed its U.S. IPO paperwork back in June. With business, safety, research, and infrastructure all changing hands in the months since, its pre-IPO organizational stability looks decidedly less steady than rival Anthropic's.