OpenAI said Tuesday that Adebayo Ogunlesi, a senior managing director at BlackRock, is joining the startup’s board of directors, the latest announcement in the company’s move toward a for-profit structure.
Ogunlesi is a founding partner of Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investing firm that was acquired by BlackRock last year for $12 billion. Before helping to start GIP in 2006, Ogunlesi spent 23 years at Credit Suisse.
“The rapid advancement and development of AI offers a unique opportunity to build a better future,” Ogunlesi said in OpenAI’s announcement Tuesday. “As part of this, thoughtful strategies and investment in infrastructure will be key to unlocking AI’s full potential and delivering its benefits responsibly. I’m excited to contribute to this effort and look forward to being a part of the OpenAI Board.”
For OpenAI, the addition of Ogunlesi to its board marks another step in its dramatic transformation to a for-profit company. The board has been almost entirely revamped since late 2023, when CEO Sam Altman was abruptly ousted before being quickly reinstated.
Former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, who was chairman at Twitter before its purchase by Elon Musk, became chair of OpenAI after the Altman ordeal in November 2023. Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary, joined at the same time. Last year, the board added several new faces including Instacart CEO Fidji Simo and Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, now known as the Gates Foundation.
OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, said in late December that it will create a public benefit corporation to oversee commercial operations, removing some of its nonprofit restrictions and allowing it to function more like a high-growth startup.
Last year, OpenAI was valued at $157 billion as it continued rolling out updated large language models and new tools after kicking off the generative artificial intelligence boom in late 2022.
The company said that by transforming into a Delaware PBC “with ordinary shares of stock,” it can pursue commercial operations while separately hiring a staff for its nonprofit arm and allowing that wing to take on charitable activities in health care, education and science, OpenAI said in December.
Musk, one of OpenAI’s co-founders is suing to try and stop OpenAI from converting into a full for-profit business.
Ogunlesi’s other board positions include BlackRock, Topgolf Callaway Brands, Kosmos Energy Holdings and Terminal Investment Ltd.
— CNBC’s Hayden Field contributed to this report.