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OpenAI has appointed billionaire investor and certainly one of Wall Street's strongest dealmakers, Adebayo Ogunlesi, to its board as the bogus intelligence startup advances its moves to develop into a for-profit company amid increasing competition from rivals.
Ogunlesi, co-founder of Global Infrastructure Partners, is understood on Wall Street as a seasoned investor who has often advised among the world's most influential firms at critical junctures.
His appointment comes as San Francisco-based OpenAI undergoes a serious corporate restructuring and expansion because the startup looks to advance its next phase of growth amid tougher competition.
Ogunlesi, who sold GIP to BlackRock for $12.5 billion last 12 months, is the most recent addition to the ChatGPT maker's board, following the ouster of Sam Altman from the corporate's board and his subsequent reinstatement as chairman in November 2023 was restructured.
Altman regained his seat on the board after an independent review last March together with chairman Bret Taylor, the previous CEO of Salesforce, and Larry Summers, the previous U.S. Treasury secretary.
Taylor said Ogunlesi has an “exceptional track record of driving success in organizations with global reach and assuredly navigating complex and dynamic business landscapes.”
Ogunlesi was a longtime informal adviser to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in addition to energy firms similar to Hess. He also served as a senior independent director at investment bank Goldman Sachs, which handled quite a lot of regulatory and legal issues following the 2008 financial crisis.
In October, Ogunlesi launched a $30 billion joint GIP BlackRock fund with backing from Microsoft, Nvidia and Abu Dhabi to construct data centers and adjoining energy infrastructure. This puts him on the forefront of the large infrastructure investments needed to deal with the explosion of AI.
Ogunlesi said he looks forward to contributing to OpenAI's efforts to make use of AI to “construct a greater future.”
“(Thoughtful) strategies and investments in infrastructure can be key to unlocking the total potential of AI and delivering its advantages responsibly,” he said in an OpenAI blog post announcing his appointment to the board.
OpenAI, which was recently valued at $150 billion, is within the strategy of becoming a nonprofit, a for-profit company with a more traditional investor compensation structure while committed to improving society.
The AI ​​startup said in December that its transformation right into a for-profit organization would “lead to certainly one of the best-resourced nonprofits in history” and multiply investor donations “over and over over.”
But the move drew strong criticism from rivals, including Elon Musk, an early supporter and co-founder of OpenAI.
Last week, a lawyer for Musk called on the attorneys general of California and Delaware to force OpenAI to auction off a big stake in his company, the most recent salvo within the legal battle over his restructuring as a for-profit company.
Kathleen Jennings, attorney general in Delaware – where OpenAI is incorporated – has asked OpenAI for more information in regards to the transition plans, saying her office has a responsibility to make sure it’s in the general public interest.
Ogunlesi will join recent board members including Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellman, former executive director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony; and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart.