Sam Altman is coming back as the CEO of OpenAI. The announcement was made early Wednesday on a platform called X, which used to be known as Twitter. This decision comes after a lot of pressure from the employees and investors. They had removed him from the position less than a week ago.
Bret Taylor, who used to be the co-CEO of Salesforce, and Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary, will now be a part of OpenAI’s board. Bret Taylor will be in charge as the chair. Adam D’Angelo, who is the co-founder and CEO of Quora, will continue to be on the board.
CEO Returns
OpenAI mentioned in the X post, “We are working together to figure out the details. Thank you for being patient through this.”
On Monday, a large group of employees, including co-founder and board member Ilya Sutskever, signed a letter. The letter stated that if the board didn’t resign and bring Altman back, the majority of them would go work with him at Microsoft.
Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, mentioned in a post on X on Monday that Altman and his co-founder Greg Brockman would be joining Microsoft to create a new AI lab.
This came after the announcement late on Sunday that OpenAI had hired Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, as Altman’s temporary replacement. Initially, the board had said that Mira Murati, OpenAI’s technology chief, would take on that role. However, she soon joined the group of employees advocating for Altman’s return.
Altman stated in his own post on X, “With the new board and Satya’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft.”
Recent Events at OpenAI: Changes, Support, and Surprises
On Tuesday, Satya Nadella said that the changes OpenAI made to its board.
“We think this is a crucial first step toward more stable, well-informed, and effective governance,” Nadella stated. “Sam, Greg, and I have discussed and agreed that they have a vital role to play, along with the OAI leadership team, in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and fulfill its mission. We are excited about building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners.”
The quick reinstatement of Altman started to seem possible on Saturday when news came out that a group of influential investors, including Microsoft, Tiger Global, Thrive Capital, and Sequoia Capital, were working to overturn the board’s decision from the previous day. None of these firms held board seats, and they were taken by surprise by the decision.
In a post on X late Saturday night, Altman stated, “I love the OpenAI team so much.” Brockman, who left the company when the board removed him as chairman along with Altman, shared the comment again with a heart symbol. Other OpenAI employees did the same.
OpenAI, which was reportedly discussing selling employee shares to investors at an $86 billion valuation just last month, became the most talked-about startup this year after launching its ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022. ChatGPT enables users to enter simple text queries and receive intelligent and creative responses that can lead to more in-depth conversations.
Altman had been leading the company since 2019, serving as both the top executive of a rapidly growing company and the public face of artificial intelligence research and product development.
OpenAI’s Unique Structure
Unlike most Silicon Valley startups, OpenAI didn’t follow the typical structure of a corporation with founders holding large portions of equity. Instead, it operated as part of a nonprofit established in 2015. The board oversees this nonprofit, serving as the governing body for all OpenAI activities, as mentioned in Friday’s blog post.
Sutskever and Brockman were both part of OpenAI’s founding team. Original investors included Altman, Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder), and Elon Musk (Tesla CEO), who reportedly committed $1 billion to the project.
Brockman stated in a post on X early Wednesday, “Returning to OpenAI & getting back to coding tonight.”
Right after OpenAI’s board announced Altman’s dismissal, well-known Silicon Valley investors and founders stated their concerns loudly. Some even drew comparisons to Apple’s decision 38 years ago to fire Steve Jobs. In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple and ultimately led the company to create the iPhone, making it the most valuable company in the U.S.
Describing the situation at OpenAI, longtime startup investor Ron Conway stated in a post on X, “What happened at OpenAI today is a Board coup that we have not seen since 1985 when the then-Apple board pushed out Steve Jobs. It is shocking, it is irresponsible, and it is not done right by Sam & Greg or all the builders in OpenAI.”
Industry Leaders Praise Sam Altman
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote Altman as a “hero of mine” for building a company that “changed our collective world forever.” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky described Altman as “one of the best founders of his generation,” and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla referred to him as a “once in a generation CEO.”
Nadella, who unexpectedly appeared at OpenAI’s developer conference earlier this month, was reportedly surprised and upset by the announcement. His company has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and maintains a close technology partnership, hosting substantial GPT workloads on its Azure cloud infrastructure.
In an early Wednesday post on X, Shear stated, “This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved. I’m glad to have been a part of the solution.”
Summary
Sam Altman’s return as OpenAI’s CEO, backed by support and industry optimism, marks a pivotal moment. The collaboration with Microsoft signals a focus on stability and innovation in the next phase of AI. OpenAI’s journey persists, led by a renewed vision for the future.
