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OpenAI sales leader James Diet announced Monday that he is leaving his position, the latest in a series of high-profile departures at the artificial intelligence company.
Mr. Dyett joined OpenAI in 2023. This was around the time the company experienced explosive growth after launching its ChatGPT chatbot. His LinkedIn profile lists his title as “Director of Sales,” but the company says he is a “Senior Sales Leader.”
OpenAI is currently valued at more than $850 billion by private investors, and Mr. Diet led enterprise sales and application programming interface (API) sales at various points during his tenure.
“I think the timing is right,” Diet wrote in a post to X on Monday. “I was taken back to the early stages of building the company, and OpenAI is in a strong position.”
Dyett’s resignation comes after a number of leadership changes at OpenAI in recent months.
Fiji Simo, OpenAI’s head of product and business, announced last month that he would be taking medical leave due to worsening neuroimmune disease. Kate Rouch, OpenAI’s head of marketing, has also decided to step down to focus on cancer recovery, and OpenAI’s head of operations, Brad Lightcap, has transitioned to a new role focused on “special projects.”
A few weeks later, Bill Peebles, who led OpenAI’s defunct short-form video app Sora, and Kevin Weil, vice president of OpenAI for Science, announced they were stepping away from their roles.
Diet said he will move to a new role with venture capital firm Thrive Capital, where he will work as a resident operator. Thrive is one of OpenAI’s long-term backers, and the company’s founder, Joshua Kushner, has a close relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“I have been fortunate to work for Thrive-backed companies for the past 10 years, first at Stripe and then OpenAI, and have experienced first-hand the company’s commitment to the enterprise,” he wrote. “We are excited to pay this to founders across our portfolio and continue to get closer to building.”
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