OpenAI poaches Google executive to lead corporate development

OpenAI has hired Google’s Albert Lee to lead corporate development, a spokesperson for the artificial intelligence startup confirmed to CNBC.

Lee previously led corporate development for Google Cloud and Google DeepMind. He worked on several of Google’s high-profile acquisitions, including its $32 billion purchase of the cloud security startup Wiz, which the company announced in March.

In his new role, Lee will have broad visibility across OpenAI as the company focuses on strategic investments and M&A in its next phase of growth, the spokesperson said. His hiring signals that OpenAI will continue to hunt for targets that can help it gain an edge over rivals like Google and Anthropic.

OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, but its valuation has ballooned to $500 billion since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.

The AI lab has made multiple acquisitions this year. Most recently, OpenAI earlier this month announced a definitive agreement to acquire Neptune, a startup that helps with AI model training. The companies did not disclose the terms.

OpenAI also bought a small company called Software Applications Incorporated for an undisclosed sum in October, the product development startup Statsig for $1.1 billion in September and former Apple designer Jony Ive’s AI devices startup io for more than $6 billion in May.

Lee is the latest of several executives to join OpenAI as the company looks to fill out its leadership bench.

Earlier this month, OpenAI announced Slack CEO Denise Dresser will serve as its chief revenue officer. In May, the company announced it hired Fidji Simo, who was then CEO of Instacart, as the head of the AI lab’s applications business.

The Information was first to report Lee’s departure from Google.

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