The AI industry reacts to OpenAI’s crazy 24-hour news

It’s been a crazy 24 hours at OpenAI.
And its artificial intelligence rivals are happy – and worried – about the company’s chaos.
Meanwhile, CEO Sam Altman said Thursday that the executives’ departure is unrelated to restructuring talks.

It’s been a wild 24 hours at OpenAI, with three high-level executives leaving the company — including CTO Mira Murati — and announcing that the company is being restructured as a for-profit corporation.

In a speech at Italian Tech Week on Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the executives’ departure and restructuring talks were unrelated.

However, on social media, major players in the field of artificial intelligence have reacted to the radical changes with serious concerns or even joy to see such major changes at one of the industry’s leading artificial intelligence companies.

Chief Executive Sam Altman’s declining tenure has sparked jokes on social media, showing old photoshopped photos of former executives. Several top researchers and executives left the company in recent months after Altman was briefly fired from OpenAI.

Elon Musk compared the head of OpenAI to a volatile character from Game of Thrones.

According to Bloomberg, the company’s changes come as OpenAI seeks new financing, valued at a staggering $150 billion.

Reuters previously reported that the high valuation depends on whether OpenAI is able to restructure itself and eliminate the profit squeeze. According to Reuters, these plans are currently under implementation and will result in the company no longer being controlled by a non-profit organization, and Altman will receive shares in the share capital.

However, one expert urged investors to reconsider whether to open their checkbooks to OpenAI.

Artificial intelligence analyst and founder of Geometric Intelligence Gary Marcus – who has been critical of Altman – wrote in X that “investors shouldn’t be spending more money at higher valuations, they should be asking what’s going on.”

“GPT-5 didn’t go down, Sora didn’t deliver the goods, the company had a $5 billion operating loss last year, there is no obvious moat,” Marcus wrote. “Meta is giving away similar software for free, multiple lawsuits are pending, and people are valuing this company at $150 billion?”

Other AI management experts opposed the for-profit shift.

Nicolas Miailhe, a board member of the AI governance nonprofit The Future Society, called it “disturbing.”

“When creating such a powerful technology that has profound implications for our economies and societies, the alignment of the public interest is crucial,” Miailhe wrote.

“We are working with our management to ensure we are best positioned to succeed in our mission,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. “This nonprofit organization is core to our mission and will continue to exist.”

Despite the storm, some OpenAI executives remained upbeat and optimistic about the future.

“I’ve been through enough ups and downs that I know it’s never wise to bet against us,” wrote vice president of research Mark Chen, who will replace outgoing CEO Bob McGrew.

Meanwhile, in a Wednesday note to OpenAI employees, Altman said changes at the top are a “natural part” of company life.

“Of course, I will not pretend that it is natural that it is so sudden, but we are not a normal company,” he wrote.

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