Sam Altman addresses 'potential equity cancellation' in OpenAI exit agreements after 2 high-profile departures

Sam Altman acknowledged OpenAI did have a provision about equity cancellation in exit documents but said the policy will be removed going forward.

• OpenAI's exit agreements had nondisparagement clauses threatening vested equity, Vox reported.
• Sam Altman said on X that the company never enforced it, and that he was unaware of the provision.
• The clause will be removed from future contracts, the OpenAI CEO said.

OpenAI employees who left the company without signing a non-disparagement agreement could have lost vested equity if they did not comply — but the policy was never used, CEO Sam Altman said on Saturday.

Vox News first reported on the exit contract terms following the high-profile exits of two AI safety researchers at the company: Superalignment co-lead Jan Leike and cofounder and former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever.

Both Sutskever and Leike left on Tuesday. Though he did not speak about the reasons behind his sudden departure, Business Insider previously reported that Sutskever, an OpenAI board member, had been in limbo after his attempt to oust Altman as CEO.

Leike kept mum until Friday morning when he said he left because OpenAI's "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products."

Vox reported on Friday that their silence could have been due to a nondisparagement agreement forbidding former employees from criticizing the company — and from even acknowledging the existence of the NDA.

On Saturday, Altman confirmed that the contract was real — but said the company has never "clawed back anyone's vested equity." He also said that moving forward, the company would no longer include that clause on exit paperwork.

"this is on me and one of the few times i've been genuinely embarrassed running openai; i did not know this was happening and i should have," Altman wrote on X.

BI previously reported that OpenAI's employee compensation includes a flat base salary of $300,000 alongside a yearly grant of around $500,000 in PPUs, or profit participation units, a form of equity compensation.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.