Who takes a board seat: a signal ahead of the IPO
OpenAI appointed Nubank founder David Vélez and BNY CEO Robin Vince to the boards of both the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation and the for-profit OpenAI Group PBC, with Vince chairing the audit committee. The move is reported as an effort to strengthen governance ahead of a potential 2027 IPO.[1]
Let me underline those two words — “audit committee chair.” Having a bank CEO audit the books of a company racing toward an IPO isn't a neutral technical arrangement — it's a question of who gets to define “healthy balance sheet” before the public markets arrive. In my July 20 column I asked about the labor behind a $587 million deal; today's question is from the same family, pointed the other way: whose capital now has a seat at the table?[1], [3]
Eight people, 3,000-4,000 panels: automation reduced to plain arithmetic
Carnegie Mellon-founded Gritt raised $32 million for robots that unload, transport and place solar panels with sub-millimeter accuracy; the round was led by Obvious Ventures with Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment joining. The company says an eight-person crew using its systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels a day, versus 800 without automation. CEO Puneet Puri says: “If we truly want to speed up construction, you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites.”[2]
Let me read the number plainly: eight people are now doing what would otherwise take four or five separate crews. The productivity gain is real — I'm not disputing that. But the question always lands in the same place: whose pocket does that gain get credited to? Gritt says its next targets are fastening panels, drilling posts, building racks and tying rebar — in other words, taking over “everything else” on the site too. My next test: as the company grows, does employment on these sites actually grow with it, or does that eight-person crew keep shrinking?[2]