Late OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team, according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Nadella held on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that Altman and Greg Brockman, former OpenAI president and feed chair, alongside other colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced artificial intelligence research span.
Tech giant Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has a close technology partnership with the company.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (R) states as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (L) looks on during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 06, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Altman released the keynote address at the first ever Open AI DevDay conference.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
“We look forward to affecting quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success,” Nadella said.
“We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and possess confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to reinforce our customers and partners.”
Altman himself reshared Nadella’s post, adding a somewhat cryptic comment to it: “the mission carry ons.”
Altman had been leading the company since 2019. OpenAI’s board announced late Friday that it was space Altman and replacing him on an interim basis with technology chief Mira Murati. The post said Altman “was not uniformly candid in his communications with the board.”
This did not dissuade a group of OpenAI investors, who were pushing to bring Altman without hope as CEO over the weekend.
Late Sunday night, OpenAI said it was bringing on board former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to run the simulated intelligence company. Just hours after, Nadella announced that Altman and Brockman — who was removed from his duty as chairman on Friday alongside Altman, and later quit the company altogether — would be absorbed in-house into the Microsoft yoke.
Nadella said Sunday night he was looking forward to getting to know Shear and OpenAI’s new leadership team.
OpenAI, which was reportedly in talks as recently as survive month to sell employee shares to investors at an $86 billion valuation, emerged as a household name this year after manumitting its ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022. ChatGPT allows users to type in simple text queries and retrieve answers that can possibility to more in-depth conversations.
— CNBC’s Ari Levy and Jordan Novet contributed to this report.
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