Disappointment for Satya Nadella! Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO

OpenAI has announced that Sam Altman will be reinstated as the CEO of the company, and he will get a new initial board alongside him. This means Altman will not be joining Satya Nadella at Microsoft.

In another twist, OpenAI has announced that Sam Altman will be reinstated as the CEO of the company. (AFP)

The OpenAI saga appears to be coming to a conclusion with one final twist, as OpenAI has just announced that Sam Altman will be returning to the company as the CEO. Alongside, he will also get a new board to work with. This means that he will not be joining Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to lead his AI research team, as announced by him earlier. The move comes after reports of mass resignation came from within the company with as many as 500 employees demanding Altman be reinstated. This would also mean that the tenure of interim CEO Emmett Shear comes to an end. 

OpenAI posted on X, “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this”. Altman reacted to the post with a salute emoji and heart emojis.

Altman also posted on X and said, “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. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya's support, i'm looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft”.

Greg Brockman will also return to OpenAI. He posted on X, “Amazing progress made today. We will come back stronger & more unified than ever”.  In a separate post, he added, “Returning to OpenAI & getting back to coding tonight”.

Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI

It was reported that Altman was asked to join the company back on Sunday itself, but he placed a condition that the non-employee board members be removed first. 

While Quora's D'Angelo retains his seat, other board members Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, and OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever appear to have been removed. In their position, Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor has been inducted as the chairman of the board alongside former US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers. Further changes are possible as the announcement highlights it is likely to be the initial board.

In his own announcement, Altman revealed that he did make up his mind to join Microsoft, but OpenAI agreeing to remove existing board members changed his mind. Further, Altman also clarified that his decision is supported by Nadella.