OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap takes on expanded role as CEO Sam Altman shifts focus to research – News

OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap’s role at the company is being expanded, and he’ll henceforth be tasked with running the company’s “business and day-to-day operations,” giving Chief Executive Sam Altman more time to focus on research and products.

In a blog post Monday, OpenAI said that Lightcap (pictured), who has been at the company since 2018, is now in charge of “global deployment,” with responsibility over its infrastructure, strategy and partnerships.

Altman’s decision to give Lightcap a higher profile at the company comes at a time when pressures are mounting. OpenAI was last month said to be closing on a new $40 billion investment from SoftBank Group Corp. that would value it at a staggering $260 billion. It’s said that a huge chunk of that money is earmarked for the company’s Stargate venture, which was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump alongside SoftBank and Oracle Corp. in January.

The Stargate initiative calls for up to $500 billion to be spent building the infrastructure for artificial intelligence computing in the U.S.

Lightcap isn’t the only OpenAI executive being given more responsibilities. In addition, the company said Mark Chen, who has served as the company’s head of frontier research since 2018, has been promoted to chief research officer. His LinkedIn profile suggests he has held that new position since January, but it’s officially being announced only today.

The company also revealed Julia Villagra, formerly head of human fesources, as its new chief people officer. According to Altman, her new role is to ensure that OpenAI “remains the top destination for people who want to build artificial general intelligence,” otherwise known as AGI, which is a term that refers to AI systems that can surpass human intelligence.

Though OpenAI has become synonymous with the generative AI and now the “agentic AI” revolution, it faces intense competition in the industry from numerous rivals, including other high-value startups such as Anthropic PBC, Chinese AI firms like DeepSeek Ltd., and also tech stalwarts such as Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc. and even Microsoft Corp., which is also a key financial backer.

The company has also been engaged in a heated public relations struggle with Elon Musk, whose xAI Corp. is another rival with its chatbot Grok. Musk, who has close ties to the Trump administration, was one of OpenAI’s co-founders but left the company after he fell out with Altman.

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