OpenAI Board’s Search for New Directors Includes a Rival

Last month, OpenAI board director Adam D’Angelo called Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi to see if he might consider joining OpenAI’s board, according to a person familiar with the situation. That kind of request might not seem unusual—except that Ghodsi has positioned Databricks as a kind of anti-OpenAI through its business of helping companies develop AI applications instead of relying on OpenAI’s technology.

Ordinarily, companies don’t invite representatives of quasi rivals to join their board. Even if Ghodsi doesn’t end up joining, the fact that D’Angelo made such an approach signals the potential for further turmoil on the board and new challenges for OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, who was fired and rehired in November after a battle with the company’s then-board.