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OpenAI’s human resources chief, Julia Villagra, is leaving the company, CNBC has confirmed.
It’s the latest high-profile shakeup at the artificial intelligence startup, which is aggressively hiring AI talent as it faces heightened competition from Google, Meta, Anthropic and others.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Villagra’s promotion to the role of chief people officer in March. She joined the company last year and is set to leave on Friday. Reuters was first to report her pending departure, which the company confirmed to CNBC.
Villagra’s exit comes just months after longtime Meta executive and former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo joined the company in a senior capacity and began taking on a more active role across OpenAI’s consumer and product initiatives.
In recent months, OpenAI has deepened its push beyond the ChatGPT chatbot and into enterprise. The company is also in the process of restructuring into a public benefit corporation to meet a key stipulation of its SoftBank-led $40 billion fundraising round.
Altman said in June that Meta has tried to poach OpenAI employees by offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million, with even larger annual compensation packages. Meta technology chief Andrew Bosworth said OpenAI countered Meta’s offers.
