OpenAI's president has quietly become the person holding the company together.
OpenAI has spent the past year in near-constant crisis mode. It fought a sensational jury trial against former co-founder Elon Musk, was hit with a trade secrets lawsuit from Apple, and faced scrutiny after an unreleased model reportedly hacked a rival AI company. Meanwhile the company is prepping for an IPO even as a steady string of high-profile executives head for the exits. Through all of it, co-founder and president Greg Brockman, described as an engineering workhorse who pushed OpenAI to build its scaled-up systems, has kept his seat and kept gathering influence.
That kind of consolidation is what happens when the people around a founder leave faster than the founder does. Investors preparing for an IPO want stability and a face they recognize, and Brockman, present since day one, is now that face by default rather than by dramatic announcement. It is less a coronation than an accumulation.
Founders who simply outlast their peers tend to end up running things, lawsuits and all.