New Delhi/New York CNN —
Microsoft has hired Sam Altman to drive its artificial intelligence innovations after the OpenAI co-founder was ousted as CEO in a chaotic boardroom coup on Friday. Meanwhile, the ChatGPT company will get its third CEO in three days.
It’s another major shift in the balance of power over artificial intelligence, the most significant new technology in decades.
Greg Brockman, another co-founder of OpenAI, is also joining Microsoft (MSFT) – the startup’s largest backer. Brockmann resigned as OpenAI president after Altman was fired.
Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Amazon’s streaming service Twitch, will join OpenAI as interim CEO. He replaces Mira Murati, who was named interim CEO after Altman was fired. She will return to her role as Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI.
“We look forward to meeting Emmett Shear,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “And we are very pleased to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, along with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.”
With its investment of $13 billion Microsoft is the largest stakeholder in OpenAI. Altman will be the CEO of the “new group,” Nadella said in his post. Shares of Microsoft rose about 2% in premarket trading on Monday.
Altman’s move to Microsoft capped a weekend of feverish speculation that the OpenAI board might make a dramatic about-face and rehire the high-profile Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor.
Altman spent Sunday at OpenAI headquarters. Post on X a photo of yourself with a green guest pass attached to a lanyard that says “OpenAI.” He wrote, “First and last time I’ll wear one of these.” Multiple news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, reported that the board that fired Altman had concerns and was working with him and Brockman to discuss her return.
With Monday’s announcement that Altman would be joining Microsoft, that speculation appeared to have been put to rest – at least for now.
In an open letter Monday morning, hundreds of OpenAI employees called for the resignation of the OpenAI board, accused it of mishandling Altman’s firing and threatened to quit and move to Microsoft along with Altman.
After announcing his move to Microsoft on Monday, Altman posted on one team, one mission.”
He also praised OpenAI’s leadership team, including Murati. “[They] “We did an incredible job on this that will go down in the history books,” Altman said on X.
Later Monday, Altman said he and Nadella’s “top priority remains ensuring.” [OpenAI] continues to thrive. We are committed to providing our partners and customers with full business continuity.”
In a post on X early Monday, Shear described the chance to join OpenAI as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“I took this job because I believe OpenAI is one of the most important companies out there today. When the board communicated the situation and asked me to take on the role, I did not take the decision lightly,” he added.
Shear had left his role as CEO of Twitch March. In his X post, Shear said it only took him “a few hours” of reflection to decide to join OpenAI.
“Ultimately, I felt like I had a duty to help if I could,” Shear said.
But Shear also noted that he is taking over a company whose reputation has been badly damaged following the botched firing of Altman and the whirlwind of a weekend in which the company flirted with the return of its just-ousted CEO. Shear said the process was “very poorly handled, which has seriously damaged our trust.”
He said the company would hire an independent investigator to report on the events leading up to Altman’s firing. Shear did not elaborate on why Altman was fired, but said it had nothing to do with concerns that Altman was leading the company in an unsafe direction or with rejection of his efforts to make money.
“The board *didn’t* fire Sam because of a specific disagreement about safety, their reasoning was completely different,” Shear said. “I’m not crazy enough to take this job without the board’s support for commercializing our great models.”
Based on the results of the investigation and his discussions with other stakeholders, Shear said he will be making “significant” changes to OpenAI in the coming month.
“The stability and success of OpenAI are too important to be disrupted by turbulence in this way,” he said.
As CEO, he must work with Altman, Brockman and other former OpenAI employees who quit and move to Microsoft, the startup’s largest strategic partner. He will also have to work with Murati, who praised Altman upon his departure and who, like many OpenAI employees, including some who quit in protest of his firing, Posted on X Monday that “OpenAI is nothing without its people.”
Altman has remained largely silent about his firing and hiring over the weekend. On Monday morning I replied to Nadella’s X post: he said“The mission continues.”
“I am delighted to welcome you, Sam, as CEO of this new group that is setting a new pace for innovation.” Nadella posted in response. “We have learned a lot over the years about how to give founders and innovators space to build independent identities and cultures within Microsoft, including GitHub, Mojang Studios and LinkedIn, and I look forward to you doing the same.”
The details of Altman’s firing remain unclear. In its announcement on Friday, OpenAI claimed that Altman had not been sufficiently “candid” with the board. and that prevented the board from carrying out its duties.
This ambiguous language sent the rumor mill into a frenzy. But Brockman provided graphic, first-hand details in a post on X.
He said Altman found out he was fired just minutes before the company released the news. Brockman suspected that Altman was fired due to a disagreement with the company’s research department, led by another co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
A key factor was Tensions between Altman, who advocated the development of AI more aggressive and members of the OpenAI board who wanted to proceed more cautiously, according to CNN’s Kara Swisher, who spoke to sources familiar with the crisis.
Altman had privately pushed the company to bring products to market more quickly and sell them at a profit. However, Altman has long been warning publicly about the risks posed by AI.
“Is [AI] It will be like the printing press that spread knowledge, power and learning throughout the world, empowering ordinary, everyday people, leading to greater prosperity, which most importantly “greater freedom?” he said in a Senate subcommittee hearing in May, pushing for regulation. “Or will it be more like the atomic bomb…?”
At the same time, Altman let OpenAI step on the accelerator.
The startup’s executives and iPhone designer Jony Ive had reportedly been in talks to raise $1 billion from Japan’s SoftBank for an AI device to replace the smartphone. And OpenAI had won a multi-billion dollar investment commitment from Microsoft as part of a partnership that included: Rapid deployment of ChatGPT-like technology at Microsoft Search engine Bing and other products.
Recently, Altman announced that OpenAI would make its tools widely available available so anyone can create their own version of ChatGPT.
Microsoft was not informed of Altman’s firing until “shortly before” the public announcement, Swisher said, and employees were not warned in advance.
—CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.