Instead of starting his own venture, Sam Altman will be joining Microsoft to lead a new special project, focussing on advanced AI research, as per an announcement by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Former OpenAI CEO is set to join Microsoft following his ouster from the AI company, announced Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in a post on X.
Following the surprising termination of Altman from OpenAI, the AI studio’s board and investors, including Nadella tried to reinstate Altman as CEO and Greg Brockman as President and member of the board.
However, talks around the reinstatement fell apart for a variety of reasons. This happened, despite the fact that Nadella and Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s biggest backers tried to play kingmaker.
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OpenAI’s co-founder Ilya Sutskever – who played a role in Altman’s dismissal – told staff that Altman will not be returning as CEO. Rather, Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch will join them as interim CEO.
Nadella took to X and announced that Microsoft as a company looks forward to getting to know Shear and OpenAI’s new leadership. He wrote, “We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them.”
Nadella also announced that Sam Altman will be joining Microsoft along with Brockman and several other people from OpenAI. At Microsoft, Altman will lead a new AI research team.
Shear was one of the co-founders of the popular video game streaming site Twitch.Until March 2023, Emmett Shear served as the chief executive officer of Twitch and currently holds a part-time partnership role at the venture capital firm Y Combinator.
It is noteworthy that Y Combinator stands as one of the prominent investors in OpenAI, following Microsoft’s significant investment. Shear proved Vital for Twitch during its initial days in sourcing funding for the streaming platform and onboarding various creators as Twitch exclusive streamers, an act that helped Twitch solidify its position as the preferred game streaming platform.
The sudden ouster of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the removal of Greg Brockman from its 4-member board has forced OpenAI to revamp its board of directors. This gives Microsoft the perfect opportunity to execute a move that would ensure that it gets a seat at the table.
Although Microsoft was considering putting itself on the board, if Altman was reinstated, there is a good chance that they still might fight for a seat on the board of directors.
As per The Informationm two individuals familiar with the discussions revealed that Microsoft earlier wanted to secure a position on OpenAI’s board of directors and assume the role of a board observer without voting authority. Now, they may go for a proper seat, with voting powers.