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OpenAI has appointed billionaire investor and one of Wall Street’s most powerful dealmakers Adebayo Ogunlesi to its board, as the artificial intelligence start-up pushes forward with moves to become a for-profit company amid rising competition from rivals.
Ogunlesi, co-founder of Global Infrastructure Partners, is known on Wall Street as a skilled investor who has counselled some of the world’s most influential companies, often at critical junctures.
His appointment comes as San Francisco-based OpenAI is going though a huge corporate restructuring and expansion, as the start-up looks to supercharge its next phase of growth amid tougher competition.
Ogunlesi, who sold GIP to BlackRock for $12.5bn last year, is the latest hire to the ChatGPT maker’s board, which was restructured following Sam Altman’s ousting by the company’s board and his subsequent reinstatement as chief executive in November 2023.
Altman regained his board seat last March following an independent review, alongside chair Bret Taylor, former chief executive of Salesforce, and Larry Summers, former US secretary of the Treasury.
Taylor said Ogunlesi had an “exceptional track record of driving success in organisations with global reach, expertly navigating complex and dynamic commercial landscapes”.
Ogunlesi has been a longtime informal adviser to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as well as energy companies such as Hess. He also acted as the lead independent director of investment bank Goldman Sachs as it dealt with a litany of regulatory and legal issues following the 2008 financial crisis.
In October, Ogunlesi launched a joint GIP BlackRock $30bn fund with backing from Microsoft, Nvidia and Abu Dhabi to build data centres and adjacent power infrastructure, putting him at the forefront of the massive infrastructure investment required to handle the explosion of AI.
Ogunlesi said he looked forward to contributing to OpenAI’s efforts to use AI to “build a better future”.
“[Thoughtful] strategies and investment in infrastructure will be key to unlocking AI’s full potential and delivering its benefits responsibly,” he said in an OpenAI blog post announcing his board appointment.
OpenAI, which was recently valued at $150bn, is in the process of becoming a public benefit corporation, a for-profit entity with a more traditional compensation structure for investors while retaining a commitment to bettering society.
The AI start-up said in December that its conversion into a for-profit entity would “result in one of the best resourced non-profits in history” and multiply the donations given by investors “manyfold”.
But the move has received strong criticism from rivals, including Elon Musk, an early backer and co-founder of OpenAI.
Last week, a lawyer for Musk called on the California and Delaware attorneys-general to force OpenAI to auction off a large stake in its business, the latest salvo in the legal battle over its restructuring as a for-profit company.
Kathleen Jennings, attorney-general in Delaware — where OpenAI is incorporated — has asked OpenAI for more information about the conversion plans and said her office is responsible for ensuring it is in the public interest.
Ogunlesi will join recent board members, including Dr Sue Desmond-Hellman, former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former Sony president; and Fidji Simo, chief executive of Instacart.
