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OpenAI is being sold by billionaire investor Adebayo Ogunlesi, one of Wall Street’s most powerful dealmakers, as the artificial intelligence startup moves toward becoming a for-profit company amid increasing competition from rivals. He was appointed as a director.
Mr. Ogunlesi, co-founder of Global Infrastructure Partners, is known on Wall Street as a seasoned investor who has advised some of the world’s most influential companies, often in times of crisis. There is.
His appointment comes as San Francisco-based OpenAI is undergoing a major corporate restructuring and expansion, seeking to accelerate its next phase of growth amid increased competition.
Ogunlesi, who sold GIP to BlackRock for $12.5 billion last year, is leading the ChatGPT maker, which was restructured after Sam Altman was fired by the board and later returned as chief executive in November 2023. He is a newly hired member of the board of directors.
Mr. Altman was reinstated as a board member last March after an independent review, along with former Salesforce CEO Brett Taylor and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
Mr. Taylor said Mr. Ogunlesi has an “extraordinary track record of driving the success of globally operating organizations and successfully navigating complex and dynamic commercial environments.”
Mr. Ogunlesi has long been an informal advisor to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Hess and other energy companies. He also served as lead independent director at investment bank Goldman Sachs, dealing with a range of regulatory and legal issues following the 2008 financial crisis.
In October, Ogunlesi launched the joint $30 billion GIP BlackRock Fund with support from Microsoft, Nvidia, and Abu Dhabi to build data centers and adjacent power infrastructure to meet the AI explosion. was at the forefront of the large-scale infrastructure investments needed to
Ogunlesi said he looks forward to contributing to OpenAI’s efforts to leverage AI to “build a better future.”
OpenAI, recently valued at $150 billion, is in the process of transitioning to a for-profit, public benefit corporation with a more traditional investor-friendly compensation structure while maintaining its commitment to bettering society.
The AI startup said in December that its transformation to a for-profit organization would create “one of the best-resourced nonprofits in history” and would increase donations from investors “many times over.” .
But the move has drawn strong criticism from rivals, including OpenAI’s early backer and co-founder Elon Musk.
Last week, Musk’s lawyers asked the attorneys general of California and Delaware to force OpenAI to auction off a large stake in its business, the latest round in a legal battle over its reorganization as a for-profit company. I asked for it.
Attorney General Kathleen Jennings of Delaware, where OpenAI is incorporated, has asked OpenAI for more information about its transformation plan and said her office is responsible for ensuring it is in the public interest. He said there is.
Mr. Ogunlesi will join recent board members, including Dr. Sue Desmond Hellman, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Nicole Seligman, former Sony president. and Fiji Simo, CEO of Instacart.
