OpenAI’s Sam Altman told employees he didn’t take a “huge equity stake.”

At an all-hands meeting on Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denied plans to take a “huge equity stake” in the company, calling that information “incorrect,” according to a person who was present.

Altman and CFO Sarah Friar said at the meeting, which was conducted via video conference, that investors had raised concerns about Altman not owning shares in the highly valued artificial intelligence company he co-founded nearly nine years ago, the person who asked said. His name was not mentioned because the gathering was for employees only.

Regarding the possibility of him taking an equity stake, Altman said: “There are no current plans here.”

OpenAI President Brett Taylor told CNBC in a statement that while the board has talked about the matter, there are no specific numbers on the table.

“The board had discussions about whether it would be beneficial to the company and our mission for Sam to be compensated through stock, but specific numbers were not discussed and no decisions were made,” Taylor said.

The meeting late Thursday followed the board’s decision to consider restructuring the company into a for-profit company, according to a separate person familiar with the matter. If the change occurs, the nonprofit sector will remain as a separate entity, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because the plan has not been finalized.

As managers ponder the future of OpenAI, key executives continue to walk out the door.

On Wednesday, three executives announced their departures. Mira Moratti, chief technology officer at OpenAI, who briefly served as interim CEO, said she will leave after six-and-a-half years. Later in the day, head of research Bob McGraw and Barrett Zoff, vice president of research, said they were leaving the company.

In an interview Thursday at Italian Tech Week, Altman said: “I think this will be a great transformation for everyone involved and I hope that OpenAI will be stronger for it, as it is for all our transformations.”

Altman said the departures are not related to a possible restructuring of the company, contrary to what some media reports said.

“Most of the things I saw were completely wrong,” Altman said at the event in Turin, Italy. “But we’ve been thinking about it, as our board has been, for almost a year independently, thinking about what it takes to get to the next stage. But I think it’s just about people getting ready for new chapters of their lives and a new generation of leadership.”

Moratti books In a note to the company that she was “stepping down because I want to free up the time and space to do my own exploration.” She said her focus would be on ensuring a “smooth transition.”

Before Thursday’s moves, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and former safety chief Jan Lake announced their departures in May. Co-founder John Schulman said last month that he was leaving to join rival Anthropic.

OpenAI, which supports it MicrosoftIt is currently seeking a financing round that would value the company at more than $150 billion, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Thrive Capital is leading the round and plans to invest $1 billion, and Tiger Global plans to join as well.

Although OpenAI has been in hyper-growth mode since launching ChatGPT in late 2022, it has been riddled with controversy and executive resignations at the same time, with some current and former employees concerned that the company is growing too quickly to operate safely.

Altman was ousted in November, before being quickly reinstated. Almost all of OpenAI’s employees signed an open letter saying they would leave the company in response to the board’s action. Days later, Altman returned to the company and Moratti moved from interim CEO to CTO.

He watches: Audit of Altman