OpenAI's new round of personnel changes? Shareholders conspire to replace Altman, three senior executives resign together.

More than two years ago, the grand "palace struggle" drama at OpenAI is still a hot topic of discussion. Now, a new personnel turmoil may be brewing - OpenAI's shareholders are considering replacing Sam Altman once again. According to media reports, some OpenAI investors believe that Altman's attention is too divided among various "side projects," and they are starting to question whether he is still suitable to lead OpenAI to an IPO, turning their focus to another executive. It is worth noting that a few days ago, another report questioned OpenAI's valuation of 85.2 billion U.S. dollars, and some investors are extremely dissatisfied with the company's business direction. An early investor bluntly said, "You have a ChatGPT business with a user base of 1 billion and an annual growth rate of 50% to 100%, yet you are talking about enterprise markets and code tools? This is a company that seriously lacks focus." Secondary market data shows that demand for Anthropic stocks is surpassing OpenAI, and buyers are willing to pay a premium for Anthropic for the first time. Doubts about whether Altman is capable of being a CEO of a public company have long existed, mainly due to his private investments. When Altman was fired, some members of the OpenAI board questioned his investments in other "side" projects. Altman has always claimed that he does not own any shares in OpenAI to avoid having his decisions influenced by financial motives. The report pointed out that Altman's annual salary at OpenAI in 2024 was only $66,000 (another media report in 2025 stated his 2024 salary was $113,700), with most of his income coming from other personal investment projects, and he is increasingly inclined to have his "main job" at OpenAI support these projects. He had requested OpenAI to lead a round of funding for the fusion startup company Helion (of which he owned a major stake). Altman was a significant shareholder in the former and he resigned from its board a few weeks ago to push for collaboration between OpenAI and Helion. Although this investment was rejected, OpenAI subsequently signed a power purchase agreement with Helion for up to 50 GW. In addition, Altman also hoped that OpenAI would provide funding support for the emerging rocket manufacturer Stoke Space, and even proposed acquiring the company at one point, with Altman holding shares in the company through his family fund Hydrazine. In fact, through the personal investment portfolio accumulated in the early years at Y Combinator, Altman's investment size is comparable to that of large venture capital firms. However, unlike tech giants like Musk and Zuckerberg, Altman's financial situation is more opaque, making it difficult to understand how his investments may affect his decisions at OpenAI. In this situation, while OpenAI's management and major investors still support Altman, some shareholders have begun to question whether he is the right choice to lead the company to an IPO, discussing the possibility of having OpenAI board chairman and former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor replace Altman as the CEO of OpenAI. Altman himself has expressed mixed feelings about the IPO in the past. In a recent podcast, he said, "Am I excited about being a CEO of a public company? Not at all. Am I excited about OpenAI becoming a public company? In some ways, I am excited, but in some ways, I find it very annoying." It is worth mentioning that several of OpenAI's business products have been scaled back/closed, including Sora and ChatGPT's "adult mode." And on April 18th, three core members of OpenAI announced their departure, including Sora founder Bill Peebles, OpenAI's Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil, and Enterprise Applications CTO Srinivas Narayanan. This article was reprinted from "Caixin Community"; GMTEight Editor: Yan Wencai.