OpenAI has hired Mike Liberatore – xAI’s latest high-profile departure – as its new business finance officer, escalating tensions between billionaire rivals Sam Altman and Elon Musk.
Liberatore – who exited xAI in July after just three months on the job – will start Tuesday in his new role overseeing the company’s massive, all-in infrastructure spending, according to CNBC.
He will report to OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar and work with Greg Brockman’s team to manage the contracts and capital behind OpenAI’s cloud computing strategy.
Liberatore is just the latest in a series of executive departures from Musk’s artificial-intelligence startup, as its chatbot Grok has suffered a string of flagrant public malfunctions. The reason for his departure is unknown.
Other departures this summer include xAI’s general counsel Robert Keele, senior lawyer Raghu Rao and co-founder Igor Babuschkin, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Liberatore, xAI and OpenAI did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Liberatore previously spent nearly nine years at Airbnb, and also worked in senior finance roles at SquareTrade, eBay and PayPal.
At xAI, he was involved in a $5 billion debt sale that Morgan Stanley helped orchestrate in June.
The company also raised $5 billion in equity. Musk’s SpaceX had contributed almost half of the total equity raised.
Liberatore also led some of xAI’s data-center expansion near Memphis, Tenn.
Meanwhile, tensions have continued to bubble up between archnemeses Altman and Musk.
While the pair helped co-found OpenAI in 2015, Musk cut ties with the firm a few years later.
He has since launched a legal battle against the ChatGPT-maker’s attempts to restructure into a for-profit entity.
OpenAI last week announced that its nonprofit owner will continue to have oversight over the company with an equity stake worth more than $100 billion – a notable step in its restructuring.
Musk and Altman’s feud has turned personal, with the two frequently trading jabs at one another during interviews or in social media posts.
Earlier this year, Musk made an unprecedented $97.4 billion bid to take over OpenAI, which the company’s board quickly shot down.
During a later interview with Bloomberg TV, when asked about Musk, Altman said: “I don’t think he’s a happy person.”
“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity,” Altman added. “I feel for the guy. I really do.”
Musk, meanwhile, has dubbed the OpenAI co-founder “Swindly Sam” in posts on his social media platform X.
OpenAI, which was recently valued by investors at a whopping $500 billion, has been ramping up its investments, including a deal with Oracle to spend $300 billion on cloud computing technology.
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