OpenAI is facing a fresh wave of senior executive departures as it prepares for an initial public offering. Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's former chief operating officer, announced Tuesday on X that he is leaving the company to start a new venture, writing, "It's bittersweet to share that I'm leaving OpenAI to start something new." He said he had spent recent months examining OpenAI's mission to develop artificial general intelligence for all of humanity and the obstacles standing in the way, adding, "I think there are a few important problems the world needs to get right." Lightcap joined OpenAI in 2018 after working alongside CEO Sam Altman at venture firm Y Combinator, and built out most of the company's operational and business functions. He stepped down as COO in April, moving to a special projects role in which he launched the OpenAI Deployment Company. His announcement came one day after news broke that Chloe Bakalar, OpenAI's ethics officer, had also left. Before that, Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI's business division, stepped down last month to seek treatment for a medical condition, while safety systems chief Johannes Heidecke and futurist Joshua Achiam also departed. In April, executives leading the Sora video-generation model team left, along with Srinivas Narayanan and Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch. Lightcap's departure is expected to have a relatively limited direct impact on operations, but the steady stream of resignations comes at a sensitive moment as OpenAI moves toward a public