Welcome back. The main thing happening today is the upheaval at OpenAI as it heads towards an IPO. Live 12–3 BST. Here's your Order of Play.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY
Staff at OpenAI are describing the company as dysfunctional as it prepares for an upcoming listing.
Chief revenue officer Denise Dresser announced her departure this week, just eight months after joining OpenAI to win corporate customers. She joins former COO Brad Lightcap and ethics chief Chloé Bakalar among the recent senior exits. Fidji Simo, once regarded as Altman’s number two, also moved into an advisory role last month.
Greg Brockman is the main beneficiary. Since the 2023 board crisis, Altman’s most trusted lieutenant has steadily accumulated more influence. OpenAI has presented the exits as streamlining, with Altman telling staff to drop "side quests" and focus on ChatGPT and the fight with Anthropic for business customers.
At the end of last month OpenAI also disbanded its preparedness team, which assessed whether models could pose severe or catastrophic risks. It was one of the last pieces of the old research-led structure, after the AGI readiness, mission alignment and superalignment teams were wound down.
Inside the company, there is growing unease about the direction of safety work. One person close to OpenAI described a "burbling sense of responsibility and dread that they aren't on the ball enough".
Investors are split. Some have raised concerns about the turnover and lack of focus at a company targeting one of the largest listings ever. Others see routine housekeeping. "I don't think it's uncommon to clean up the organisation before going public," one large shareholder told the FT.
We're getting into all of it on today's show at 12 BST.
FRIDAY’S MOMENT
Klarna CMO David Sandström said the company cracked the US by targeting individual communities.
"Instead of thinking about going after the US, which is an insane first hill to climb, go after a zip code or a community or something smaller," he said. "We pinpointed subcultures that we felt fitted and needed our proposition."
That meant teaming up with RuPaul's Drag Race on a campaign called Shop Like a Queen, then running the same playbook on gamers.
Watch the conversation below.
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