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OpenAI has just hired the former finance chief at xAI as a senior finance executive.
Mike Liberatore begins his new role at OpenAI on Tuesday, an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC. Liberatore added the new job to his LinkedIn profile, too.
He will report to OpenAI’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, and work with Greg Brockman’s team, which oversees the contracts and capital behind the company’s compute strategy, CNBC said.
OpenAI and xAI did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Liberatore’s arrival at OpenAI comes weeks after he left xAI in July, following a three-month stint as CFO.
His exit is part of a string of high-level departures at xAI. Igor Babuschkin, who founded xAI alongside Elon Musk in 2023, left the artificial intelligence startup last month.
The company also laid off at least 500 workers on its data annotation team on Friday night, Business Insider reported. At least nine high-level employees appear to no longer be with the team as their Slack accounts were deactivated last week, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider.
Liberatore spent nearly nine years at Airbnb and held senior finance roles at SquareTrade, eBay, and PayPal, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The hire comes as the rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk heats up.
Musk last month threatened to sue Apple, alleging App Store favoritism toward OpenAI. Altman shot back by pointing to Musk’s control of X.
A federal judge in Oakland, California, has set a March 2026 trial date for the first of what may be multiple trials in Musk’s civil racketeering lawsuit against Altman, Brockman, OpenAI, and Microsoft.
Years ago, the two cofounded OpenAI, which Altman now leads. Musk departed OpenAI in 2018 and started xAI.
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