OpenAI poaches former xAI CFO, adding fuel to the feud between Altman and Musk

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Media reports indicate that OpenAI has hired former xAI CFO Mike Liberatore as the head of business finance for the AI startup, responsible for overseeing its massive infrastructure spending.

According to an OpenAI spokesperson, Liberatore officially started on Tuesday this week. He will report to CFO Sarah Friar and collaborate with Greg Brockman's team, which manages contracts and capital behind OpenAI’s compute strategy. Liberatore has also updated his LinkedIn profile with this new position.

The media notes that this personnel change has once again drawn public attention to the escalating rivalry between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk. The conflict between these two most-watched figures in the tech industry has become a high-profile showdown in the public eye.

The two were once friends and co-founded OpenAI together in 2015, when it was a non-profit research lab. In recent years, however, their relationship has broken down publicly, as OpenAI transitioned into a fast-growing commercial company, mainly funded by Microsoft.

Last year, Musk sued Altman and OpenAI for breach of contract and tried to prevent the company from switching to a for-profit entity. Last week, OpenAI announced that its nonprofit parent will continue to oversee the company and will hold over $100 billion in equity—a significant step towards its profit-oriented structure.

In addition, last month, Musk threatened to sue Apple, accusing the App Store of favoring OpenAI. Altman hit back, pointing out Musk's controlling position over the social platform X.

OpenAI has recently been valued by investors at $500 billion and continues to expand its investment in computing resources, including a $30 billion agreement signed with Oracle.

Frequent Personnel Changes at xAI

Liberatore previously worked at Airbnb for nearly nine years and held senior finance positions at SquareTrade, eBay, and PayPal.

Liberatore only joined xAI earlier this year and participated in some of the company's fundraising efforts. During his tenure at xAI, Liberatore helped drive a $5 billion debt offering and a $5 billion equity financing, with partial involvement from SpaceX, and approved multiple large-scale data center expansion plans. Media reports earlier this month said he left in July this year, just three months after taking office. His departure was part of a series of management changes at xAI. Igor Babuschkin, who co-founded xAI with Musk in 2023, also left the company last month.

Liberatore's exit has also left a key position vacant at xAI. Currently, xAI is actively raising funds and planning to expand its AI infrastructure, including building data centers and purchasing computing chips.

Media reports state that Jared Birchall, the head of Musk's family office, is also deeply involved in xAI’s financial decisions and is one of the key figures in financing across multiple Musk-owned companies. Meanwhile, former Tubi executive Mahmoud Reza Banki remains CFO of the X platform.

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