TURIN, Italy, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Sam Altman denied on

Thursday that there was any link between the departure of three

senior OpenAI executives and a planned restructuring of the

company which he said the board had been considering for several

months.

The world-leading AI firm's longtime chief technology

officer Mira Murati abruptly announced her departure on

Wednesday. Within hours, two senior research executives Barret

Zoph and Bob McGrew revealed they were also leaving the company.

On the same day, Reuters reported OpenAI was working on a

plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit

corporation that will no longer be controlled by its non-profit

board, in a move aimed at making the company more attractive to

investors.

Speaking on stage at the Italian Tech Week conference in

Turin, OpenAI CEO Altman said that "some stuff" reported around

the executives' departures was inaccurate, adding that the

personnel changes were unrelated to the restructuring.

"That's totally not true," he told event organiser John

Elkann, the chairman of car companies Ferrari ( RACE ) and

Stellantis ( STLA ).

"A lot of the stuff I saw was also just totally wrong, but

we have been thinking about that (restructuring), our board has,

for almost a year, independently, as we think about what it

takes to get to our next stage."

Altman praised the departing executives, adding he was

excited to simplify the company's structure and work more

closely with technical staff.

"I have not been as involved in the tech recently as other

things, because there's been so much going on, I'm excited to do

that," he said.

"This will be, hopefully, a great transition for everyone

involved, and OpenAI will be stronger for it, as we are for all

our transitions."

Details of the proposed restructure highlight significant

changes behind the scenes at one of the world's top AI

companies.

Sources told Reuters the plans were still being negotiated

between lawyers and shareholders at the time of writing, with

the timeline for completion still uncertain.

(Writing by Martin Coulter; Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and

Elvira Pollina

Editing by Keith Weir)