OpenAI Hires Mike Liberatore Amid Rivalry with Elon Musk
OpenAI has appointed Mike Liberatore as its new business finance officer, intensifying the ongoing rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk.
Liberatore, who recently exited XAI after a brief three-month tenure, will officially start on Tuesday. He will be responsible for overseeing the company’s substantial infrastructure investments, as reported.
In his new role, he will report to OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar and collaborate with Greg Brockman’s team on managing contracts and capital for OpenAI’s cloud computing initiatives.
His hiring adds to a series of notable departures from Musk’s AI ventures, particularly as XAI’s chatbot Grok faces significant operational issues. The reasons behind his abrupt exit remain unclear.
Other recent departures from XAI include advisory member Robert Keele, senior lawyer Raghu Rao, and co-founder Igor Babuschkin.
Neither Liberatore, XAI, nor OpenAI provided immediate comments when approached.
Before joining XAI, Liberatore spent almost nine years at Airbnb and held senior finance positions at Squaretrade, eBay, and PayPal.
While at XAI, he played a role in the $5 billion debt sale that Morgan Stanley facilitated and contributed to XAI’s $5 billion equity raise, in which Musk’s SpaceX was a major investor. He also directed aspects of XAI’s data center expansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
The tension between Altman and Musk continues to escalate. Although they co-founded OpenAI in 2015, their relationship soured a few years later, leading Musk to sever ties with the organization.
Since then, Musk has engaged in legal disputes over OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit model. The company recently announced that its nonprofit shareholders will oversee investments exceeding $100 billion.
The personal feud between Musk and Altman has become quite pronounced, with both taking jabs at each other during interviews and on social media. Earlier this year, Musk made headlines with a $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI.
In a subsequent interview with Bloomberg TV, Altman speculated on Musk’s mindset, saying, “I don’t think he’s a happy person,” adding, “I feel for him. I really do.”
On the other hand, Musk has referred to Altman as “Swindly Sam” in posts on the social platform X.
Amidst all this, OpenAI, now valued at an impressive $500 billion, is ramping up its investments, including a recent $300 billion deal with Oracle for cloud computing advancements.
