First, Sam Altman lost his position as OpenAI CEO. Then, after initial rumors about his return, he was drawn to Microsoft. Two successors took over his job at the same time. Now it’s clear: He’s coming back to OpenAI after all. An overview.
The tech industry is fast-moving – no question about it. But what happened at the top of the AI company OpenAI is unparalleled. At the moment it seems as if some calm is returning, because just a few hours ago the sacked founder Sam Altman announced his return to the top of OpenAI. The company wrote: “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO, with a new Board of Directors consisting of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo. We are working together to finalize the details rules. Thank you for your patience during this time.”
Altman elaborated: “I love OpenAI. Everything I’ve done over the last few days has been to keep this team and its mission on track. When I decided to join Microsoft on Saturday, it was clear that it was for the best path for me and the team. With the new Board of Directors and the support of Satya Nadella, I look forward to returning to OpenAI and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft.”
Anyone who hasn’t paid attention in the past few days has missed a lot – because the chaos surrounding Sam Altman and OpenAI unfolded at breakneck speed.
November 17th: Things have been simmering behind the OpenAI scenes for days
According to OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, it all started behind closed doors on Thursday last week. Accordingly, Altman is said to have received an invitation for a call with the then board of directors for the following day. In this call he found out that he was losing his job.
It was only on Friday that Brockman was informed that he would keep his job but lose his seat on the council. It was there that he first found out about Altman’s departure, even though he had previously been chairman of the board of directors and should actually have had a say in the decision.
At that time, Mira Murati, previously OpenAI’s head of technology, was given the job as interim CEO.
When the news broke publicly on November 17th, events exploded. While the board of directors, consisting of four people, including chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, tried to explain in large groups why the celebrated Altman, to whom large parts of the company are highly loyal, had to leave, the resignations came: first Brockman resigned from his position, quickly followed by other important developers and researchers.
November 18: OpenAI is upside down, Mira Murati takes over
The following day, on November 18th, OpenAI’s senior management, such as Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, tried to understand why the board of directors had made this decision. It was always said that Altman lost his job because of non-transparent communication. Behind the scenes it had long been clear that it was the result of a duel between two camps. While the board of directors still saw OpenAI as an original non-profit organization, Altman, in its eyes, was continually steering in a commercial direction. The Council saw the “mission to safely develop artificial general intelligence for the benefit of all humanity” at risk and acted at its own discretion.
Altman thus became a victim of his own structure, because when he founded his company, he had set it up in such a way that the board of directors was given a corresponding amount of power.
Altman apparently didn’t allow himself to be disturbed at first and was already planning a new company. It became apparent that the former OpenAI employees who also left due to his departure would follow him.
At OpenAI, investors put pressure on the board of directors on the same day because they did not agree with the decision and feared for the value of the company. It has already become apparent that Microsoft, as OpenAI’s major investor, is planning its own steps.
Perhaps because of the pressure – or internal disputes – the council decided on the evening of November 18th to seek an interview with Altman and discuss his return. The next day, Altman showed up at the OpenAI office with a guest pass – and wrote on X that he was certainly wearing this pass for the first and last time.
November 19: The second CEO in two days
But it didn’t take long until the attempt failed. Although interim CEO Murati and COO Lightcap are said to have fought for Altman’s return, the board of directors decided otherwise. On November 19th, Murati was removed from her position after a few days and replaced with former Twitch boss Emmett Shear.
Shear, who had no previous experience with artificial intelligence, expressed his excitement about the opportunity in a long post on X. In the following 30 days, he promised, he wanted to set OpenAI on a new course and advance the company’s projects.
This is said to have caused dissatisfaction again internally and among investors – which is why November 20th brought another big twist.
November 20: Microsoft wants to bring in Sam Altman
At the initiative of major investor Microsoft, especially CEO Satya Nadella, Altman was created a new home. He and Brockman were given the chance by Nadella to set up their own new AI team within the billion-dollar company. In keeping with this, around 500 OpenAI employees, including board member Sutskever, threatened to quit if Altman did not return and those responsible for the chaos quit.
Shortly afterwards it became known that the deal between Altman, Brockman and Microsoft was not over after all – and that a return was actually being negotiated behind the scenes with OpenAI.
Sutskever, who had apparently since switched to Altman and the employees’ side, apologized for the chaos that he was responsible for and wrote: “I deeply regret that I took part in the actions of the board of directors. I never intended OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I’ll do everything I can to reunite the company.”
Even Elon Musk got involved and asked Sutskever what reasons he might have had. The X owner and Tesla boss asked for information as to why this had happened in the first place – and suspected that danger in connection with artificial intelligence was imminent.
In a TV interview, even Satya Nadella, the otherwise so calm Microsoft CEO, briefly gave the impression that he didn’t know what was going on. When asked whether Altman and the hundreds of OpenAI employees who threatened to quit would actually move to Microsoft, Nadella replied: “That’s for the board, management and employees of OpenAI to decide.”
In another interview, he was asked whether Altman and Brockman were now Microsoft employees. His answer: “They are about to join.”
November 21: The new CEO fights to lose his job
November 21st was a little quieter – at least as far as the public was concerned. But apparently the new OpenAI CEO Emmett Shear was busy removing himself from office – because he is said to have negotiated with Altman.
“The Verge” described the situation as follows: “New interim CEO Emmett Shear is involved in brokering these negotiations, resulting in the frankly unprecedented situation that the interim CEO who replaced the interim CEO, the Sam and who was replaced because he tried to get Sam back is now deeply involved in a new attempt to get Sam back. Read it a few times, it’s fine. It doesn’t make sense to anyone else either. “
November 22: Sam Altman returns
And so it was Shear who celebrated his resignation on “I wasn’t sure what the right path would be. This was the path that maximized safety while being fair to all stakeholders involved. I’m glad to have been part of the solution.”
This ends a day-long odyssey – and Altman returns as a hero. It remains to be seen what this means for the future of the company and the collaboration with Microsoft.
Sources: XOpenAI, X Sam Altman, X Greg Brockman, The Information, Techcrunch, The Verge, X Sam Altman, The Information, X Emmett Shear, XEmily Chang, Bloomberg, X Staya Nadella, Wired, The Verge, CNBC, BloombergTV, The Verge, X Emmett Shear, XOpenAI, X Ilya Sutskever