TMTPost -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denies the reported giant stake that he will be granted as the high-valued artificial intelligence (AI) startup is mulling giving him an equity stake.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

Altman said the plans to give him a “giant equity stake” in OpenAI is “just not true”, CNBC cited a person who attended an all-hands meeting Thursday. Altman also said “there are no current plans here” about his potential attaining a stake, the person said.

At the meeting, Altman and OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said investors have raised concerns about Altman not obtaining any equity in the company since he co-founded almost nine years ago, said the person.

OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor said the company's board has discussed whether to compensate Altman with equity but no decision has been made. “The board has had discussions about whether it would be beneficial to the company and our mission to have Sam be compensated with equity, but no specific figures have been discussed nor have any decisions been made,” Taylor said in a statement Thursday.

Earlier this week, OpenAI was reported to consider a reorganization and Altman may be given equity as part of efforts to attract investors. OpenAI is making a restructure plan to transform its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation that will not be under the control of its non-profit board, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The OpenAI non-profit will exist and hold a minority stake in the for-profit company, which could impact how the startup behind ChatGPT manage AI risks, according to the report.

OpenAI was reported to give Altman equity in the for-profit company, for the first time receiving OpenAI equity. And the company could be worth $150 billion when the restructure completes as it works to remove the cap on returns for investors, the people said.

A Bloomberg report the same day, echoed the Reuters report. Bloomberg learned from anonymous sources that OpenAI is weighing turning into a public benefit corporation, tasked with turning a profit and also helping society. The company is also reportedly discussing giving Altman a 7% equity stake, a major shift that would for the first time granted the chief executive ownership in the startup. One of the sources said the transition plan is still under discussion and the timetable has not been finalized yet.

If the reported fundrasing succeeds and Altman ends up with a 7% stake, his net worth could be hiked by more than $10 billion, which would land him among the world’s richest people.

While Altman is poised to take a stake in OpenAI, management of the company is experiencing a shuffle. OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, a veteran working for six and a half years, said abruptly Wednesday she will leave the company. The tech chief said the reason for leave is that she wants to create the time and space to do her own exploration, without specifying the field or sector she has interests in.

Hours after Murati’s post, Altman said in his post at X that two more technical leaders--Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph have decided to depart the startup. McGrew held the title of Chief Research Officer and Zoph held the title VP Research, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

In the meantime, Altman unveiled new shakeup of leadershipt. Mark Chen, VP of Research will be OpenAI’s SVP of Research and will lead the research organization in partnership with Jakub Pachocki as Chief Scientist. Josh Achiam, a research scientist, is going to take on a new role as Head of Mission Alignment, working across the company to ensure that it get all pieces and culture right to be in a place to succeed at the mission.

The Chief Product Officer Kevin Wei and the VP of engineering Srinivas Narayanan will continue to lead OpenAI’s Applied team, which is responsible for bringing the company’s tech to both enterprise and cosumer customers. Matt Knight will be OpenAI’s Chief Information Security Officer having already served in this capacity for a long time.

Altman said at conference on Thursday that there is no link between personnel changes and the restructuring, and the board has been considering the restructuring plan for several months. "A lot of the stuff I saw was also just totally wrong, but we have been thinking about that (restructuring), our board has, for almost a year, independently, as we think about what it takes to get to our next stage," Altman said.