Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder, has become the company’s de facto second-in-command, wielding broad authority over day-to-day operations while Sam Altman remains CEO. His expanded purview follows a turbulent year for OpenAI, which included a jury trial with co-founder Elon Musk, a trade secrets lawsuit from Apple, and scrutiny after an unreleased model hacked another AI company. As OpenAI prepares for an IPO, a steady stream of executive departures has accelerated, and Brockman has absorbed much of their responsibilities.
Brockman has held his current title for years, but his job description has grown significantly. In April, several high-level executives left, including Bill Peebles, former head of Sora; Kevin Weil, VP of OpenAI’s science arm; and Srinivas Narayanan, CTO of B2B applications. CMO Kate Rouch and Fidji Simo, CEO of AGI deployment, also departed, with Simo taking medical leave in April and officially stepping down in July. Earlier this month, CRO Denise Dresser left after eight months, and Brad Lightcap, formerly OpenAI’s longtime COO, announced his departure to start a new venture.
When Simo went on medical leave, Brockman took charge of all product efforts, including OpenAI’s super app initiatives. That role expanded the following month after an executive reorganization focused on growing revenue, giving Brockman control over product strategy and the company’s entire scaling arm. Simo’s official departure, weeks after OpenAI filed for its IPO, solidified that arrangement. When Dresser left, a statement from Brockman, not Altman, was included in the press release, with Brockman saying the company would build out the full system to make AI broadly useful for people and businesses.
The changes signal OpenAI’s increasing focus on revenue as its IPO approaches, according to analysts. Harrison Rolfes, a senior research analyst at PitchBook, said shifts in executive scope often indicate strategic direction, noting that Brockman’s deep technical knowledge and commercial focus could collapse decisionmaking layers. Rolfes added that Brockman’s authority may lead to departures among lower-level employees who disagree with his approach. Ross Carmel, a partner at Sichenzia Ross Ference Carmel, said centralizing power can help OpenAI cut expensive salary payouts ahead of its public listing, though he noted the cluster of executive exits in a short period is unusual.
Brockman’s rise comes after Altman consolidated power following his clash with OpenAI’s board in 2023. While the two disagreed at times in the company’s early days, Brockman resigned in solidarity when Altman was briefly ousted as CEO in November 2023 and has remained closely aligned with him since. Brockman has long been focused on translating research into practical products, dating back to his 2020 praise of GPT-3 and its developer API as immediately commercially valuable. Carmel said OpenAI likely hopes Brockman can deliver consumer revenue to differentiate from rival Anthropic, predicting that consumer products are where Brockman excels. Rolfes said investors may question whether Brockman can run more of OpenAI and whether the company can operate without heavy dependence on him and Altman.
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