OpenAI Senior Staff Exodus as Company Slashes Funding for Sora and DALL-E to Focus on ChatGPT
Summary
OpenAI triggers senior staff exodus including VP of Research Jerry Tworek as the company slashes funding for Sora and DALL-E projects to prioritize ChatGPT, while burning through $17 billion annually despite $20 billion revenue and planning ads on free tiers.
Key Points
- OpenAI's strategic shift to focus resources on ChatGPT and large language models triggers departure of senior staff including Vice President of Research Jerry Tworek, Model Policy Researcher Andrea Vallone, and Economist Tom Cunningham
- Teams working on Sora and DALL-E face significant under-resourcing as the company denies or scales back funding requests for non-LLM projects while winding down several non-language initiatives
- Despite generating over $20 billion in revenue for 2025, OpenAI burns through more than $17 billion annually and plans to test advertisements on free tiers to justify its $500 billion valuation