OpenAI hires former xAI CFO Sam Altman as competition with Musk escalates

On September 16, Jin10 reported that OpenAI has hired Mike Liberatore, the former CFO of Elon Musk's xAI, to serve as the Chief Financial Officer of the artificial intelligence startup, overseeing its large-scale infrastructure spending. A company spokesperson stated that Liberatore left xAI just three months after joining in July this year, and officially started at OpenAI on Tuesday. He will report to CFO Sarah Friar and work with Greg Brockman's team, which is responsible for managing the contracts and capital operations behind OpenAI's Computing Power strategy. This personnel appointment is the latest development in the escalating competition between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Musk. The two co-founded the nonprofit research lab OpenAI in 2015, but have publicly split and become rivals in recent years as the company transformed into a rapidly growing commercial entity primarily funded by Microsoft.