Sam Altman's right-hand man Brad Lightcap leaves OpenAI after 8 years

OpenAI has lost another key executive as Brad Lightcap has announced his exit. Lightcap, who had been at the AI startup since 2018 and a major ally of Sam Altman, has hinted that he may start a new venture soon.Brad Lightcap, who was seen as a close aide of Sam Altman, is leaving OpenAI. (Photos: Reuters/LinkedIn)OpenAI has seen some big names leave in recent weeks, with former COO Brad Lightcap joining this growing list. Lightcap, who is one of the longest-serving executives at the company, and the de facto right-hand man of Sam Altman, is now leaving to start something of his own.Brad Lightcap announced his exit on X, where he reposted a memo sent to OpenAI employees. In his note, Lightcap called the decision “bittersweet” and said he felt “incredibly fortunate” to have spent most of the past decade building OpenAI. “It has been the honor of my life to help bring us to this point, and to do it alongside all of you,” he wrote.Since joining the company in 2018, Lightcap has been pivotal in growing OpenAI into what it is today, with enterprise partnerships and deals that bring billions in revenue. Brad Lightcap added, “We grew from a small research lab to one of the most consequential companies of our time.”The former OpenAI COO claimed that he was about to “start something new.” Though he did not give any further details. He ended his message by saying, “The old OpenAI meme that ‘the real AGI is the friends you made along the way’ really rings true for me. i shared the message below with the openai team this morning. these decisions are never easy, but the talent and mission orientation of the openai team make me more optimistic than ever. ###Team, it is bittersweet to share that I’ll be moving on from OpenAI to start— Brad Lightcap (@bradlightcap) August 11, 2026 Sam Altman reacts to Brad Lightcap's exitOpenAI CEO Sam Altman replied to Lightcap’s post. Altman thanked the OpenAI executive for his time at the company, and recalled an old conversation. “i very fondly remember our earliest conversations about OpenAI, when it sounded totally crazy and you were one of the few people that got it,” Sam Altman wrote.Altman claimed Lightcap had taken on “any function and challenge OpenAI has needed” and added that the company would not be where it is without him. Sam Altman recalled an old conversation with Brad Lightcap in his reply. Brad Lightcap and Sam Altman have had a long working relationship, dating back to startup accelerator Y Combinator, which Altman led before OpenAI. He also worked at Dropbox and JP Morgan in the past.Lightcap joined OpenAI in 2018 after, as he put it, wanting to work on “something hard.” At the company, Sam Altman introduced him to Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, who showed him a pitch deck arguing that because AI models improve predictably with scale, AGI was not only possible but likely.Brad Lightcap spent four years as OpenAI’s chief financial officer before stepping up to be the chief operating officer. In April, he transitioned to lead special projects at the startup. With chief revenue officer Denise Dresser taking over most of his COO responsibilities.Under Lightcap, OpenAI turned into a major player when it came to supplying AI tools to businesses. In 2018, the AI startup had no real product for enterprises, and today, it has signed major deals with many big companies globally, bringing billions of dollars in revenue. He added, “I had the privilege of building the first versions of most of our operations and business teams – from Finance to Legal, People, CorpSec, GTM/Gov, Partnerships, and more.”OpenAI sees another exit ahead of IPOOpenAI is expected to go public before the end of this year. The company is currently valued at $852 billion, and may cross a trillion-dollar valuation after an IPO. But before such an IPO goes through, OpenAI has seen some high profile exits.Brad Lightcap’s exit follows the likes of researcher Naomi Bashkansky and AI ethics lead Chloe Bakalar who recently left OpenAI. Earlier this year, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications Fidji Simo also moved into an advisory role, while head of safety Johannes Heidecke left in July. Bill Peebles, who headed the Sora AI video generator, is no longer at OpenAI either.- EndsPublished By: Armaan AgarwalPublished On: Aug 12, 2026 08:46 IST