OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who was ousted by the board late last week under mysterious circumstances, will return to the helm of the AI market leader following a dizzying five-day drama that threatened the collapse of one of the world's most-valuable startups.
Altman, 38, will resume his duties as group CEO for OpenAI while the board the removed him late Friday will be completely transformed, with only Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo remaining and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers joining former Salesforce (CRM) -) co-CEO Bret Taylor on the newly-comprised oversight committee.
"I love Openai, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together," Altman said in a post on the X social media website. "When I decided to join Microsoft on Sunday evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. With the new board and with Satya’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAi, and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft."
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OpenAI indicated its final composition remains in question, but plans for a nine-person board are underway, with the group posting on the X social media website that "we are collaborating to figure out the details."
The future of former Amazon (AMZN) -) Twitch executive Emmett Shear, who was named CEO on Saturday, remains unclear.
OpenAI's chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who reportedly lead the move to oust Altman, as well as GeoSim Systems CEO Tash McCauley and Helen Toner, who runs research grants from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, will likely leave the group.
That decision may prove crucial in retaining the vast majority of OpenAI staff, nearly all of whom signed a letter threatening to leave if the board wasn't dismissed following its shambolic handling of Altman's departure, while saw the tech entrepreneur immediately hired by OpenAI's biggest shareholder, Microsoft (MSFT) -).
OpenAI is nothing without its people https://t.co/XYKLQ61e6l
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who lobbied for Altman's return under the condition that its corporate governance structure was completely overhauled, but noted that “irrespective of where Sam is, he’s working with Microsoft" in terms of the tech giant's AI ambitions.
"We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board. We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance," Nadella said in a post on X.
"Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission," he added. "We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners."
Microsoft has touted the potential of ChatGPT, a tool that uses human language to process instructions, to close the gap on market leader Google, the eponymous lead product of parent company Alphabet.
Investors are betting that AI adoption will help Microsoft — which generated just $3.2 billion in search revenue last year — challenge the market dominance of Google, which churned around $43 billion.
In a further demonstration of its AI focus, Microsoft said last week that it will start producing its own central processing units in an effort to diversify its dependence from AI chip leader Nvidia (NVDA) -). The move is seen as likely to improve long-term profit margins as the software giant seeks to make it easier to build GPT and AI functionality into its product base.
Microsoft shares were marked 1.5% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $378.60 each.
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