The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — OpenAI CFO sends email to investors after three execs quit on the same day
OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar used a mass email to quell investors’ worries about last week’s departures of its chief technology officer Mira Murati, chief research officer Bob McGrew and vice president of research Barret Zoph, according to reports from CNBC.
The leadership departures come amid the company’s attempts to conduct a widely discussed corporate restructuring, going from a nonprofit to a colossal for-profit company. In conjunction, the company’s board of directors has reportedly discussed giving equity compensation to Sam Altman, the company’s founder and CEO.
“I wanted to personally reach out following the news of Mira’s departure from OpenAI. While leadership changes are never easy, I want to ensure you have the full context,” wrote Friar. “We are incredibly proud of everything [Murati] helped build.”
Friar continued, adding the company still has a “talented leadership bench” to compete. “Collectively, we remain laser-focused on bringing AI to everyone and building sustainable revenue models that fuel our operations and deliver value to our investors and employees,” her message continued. “[OpenAI is] excited for you to be with us as we enter our next chapter.”
This is one of several leadership shakeups the company has had to explain lately. After the abrupt firing and rehiring of Altman last year, the recent exodus of leadership comes at a time of not only their CFO’s recent arrival but also partnerships with the world’s largest companies like Microsoft and Apple. Apple reportedly will not participate in OpenAI’s anticipated funding round.
On Sept. 26, a day after the announcement of the departure of Murati, McGrew and Zoph, both Friar and Altman appeared at a virtual all-hands meeting, where Altman internally denied reports of him taking a “giant” equity stake in the company post-restructure. CNBC also reported via an anonymous OpenAI employee that investors “have raised concerns” about Altman not having equity in the company.
The departures also come as the company posts its highly debated $150 billion evaluation and is set to close a funding round of $6.5 billion. If all goes according to plan, the deal is set to close this week.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, Sept. 30
Tuesday, Oct. 1
- S&P final U.S. manufacturing PMI, Sept.
- ISM manufacturing, Sept.
- Job openings, Aug.
Wednesday, Oct. 2
- ADP employment, Sept.
Thursday, Oct. 3
- Initial jobless claims, week ending Sept. 28
- S&P final U.S. services PMI, Sept.
- Factory orders, Aug.
Friday, Oct. 4
- U.S. employment report, Sept.
- U.S. unemployment rate, Sept.
Part 3 — Tax, FP&A and a dude’s morning
This week, CFO.com will have an opinion piece on navigating the tax trifecta from KPMG leadership, a 6 a.m. CFO series edition with Jeffrey Klimkowski of DUDE Wipes and a story on defining the ambiguity of FP&A.
