OpenAI has seen several prominent departures in recent weeks, and former COO Brad Lightcap has now joined the list. One of the company's longest-serving executives and a close associate of CEO Sam Altman, Lightcap is leaving OpenAI to pursue a new venture of his own.
Lightcap announced his departure on X by sharing a memo he had sent to OpenAI employees. Describing the decision as “bittersweet”, he said he felt “incredibly fortunate” to have spent much of the past decade helping build the company.
Lightcap joined OpenAI in 2018 and played a major role in its transformation, particularly through enterprise partnerships and business deals that have generated billions of dollars in revenue. Reflecting on the company's growth, he wrote that OpenAI had evolved from “a small research lab to one of the most consequential companies of our time.”
Although Lightcap did not reveal details about his next venture, he said he was preparing to “start something new”. He ended his message by referencing OpenAI's old joke that “the real AGI is the friends you made along the way”, saying the line had taken on particular meaning for him.
Sam Altman reacts to Brad Lightcap's exit
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Lightcap's announcement, thanking him for his contribution to the company and recalling their early conversations.
Altman said he remembered when OpenAI sounded “totally crazy” to many people and Lightcap was among the few who understood its potential. He also praised Lightcap for taking on “any function and challenge OpenAI has needed”, adding that the company would not have reached its current position without him.
Lightcap and Altman have known each other since their time around startup accelerator Y Combinator, which Altman previously led. Before joining OpenAI, Lightcap had worked at Dropbox and JPMorgan.
Lightcap joined OpenAI because he wanted to work on “something hard”. After joining, Altman introduced him to co-founder Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who presented him with the company's argument that AI models would continue improving predictably with scale, making artificial general intelligence possible and increasingly likely.
He initially spent four years as OpenAI's chief financial officer before becoming chief operating officer. In April, Lightcap moved into a role overseeing special projects, with chief revenue officer Denise Dresser assuming most of his previous COO responsibilities.
During his time at OpenAI, Lightcap helped turn the company into a major provider of AI products for businesses. When he joined in 2018, OpenAI had little presence in the enterprise market. Since then, it has secured major corporate partnerships around the world and built a multibillion-dollar business operation.
Lightcap also said he had been involved in creating early versions of many of the company's operational and business teams, including Finance, Legal, People, Corporate Security, go-to-market and government affairs, and Partnerships.
OpenAI sees another senior exit ahead of potential IPO
Lightcap's departure comes as OpenAI prepares for a potential public listing later this year. The company is currently valued at around $852 billion and could potentially exceed a $1 trillion valuation through an IPO.
His exit follows several other high-profile departures. Researcher Naomi Bashkansky and AI ethics lead Chloe Bakalar have recently left the company. Earlier this year, Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of Applications, moved into an advisory position, while safety chief Johannes Heidecke departed in July. Bill Peebles, who previously led OpenAI's Sora AI video-generation project, has also left the company.
The departures come at a significant moment for OpenAI as it continues expanding its business while preparing for its next major phase.
