In a LinkedIn post, Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO at Microsoft said that Altman would join the firm alongside former OpenAI president Greg Brockman.
Nadella 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.”
News emerged over the weekend that Emmett Shear, former Twitch CEO and co-founder would be taking over as CEO of OpenAI and Nadella referenced this in his message.
“We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI's new leadership team and working with them,” he added.
“And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.
“We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.”
OpenAI departure
The news comes just days after Altman was fired for allegedly lying to the OpenAI company board. The company accused him of “being not consistently candid in his communication”.
The OpenAI board released a statement saying the new leadership was “necessary” as it moved forward.
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” the board’s statement said.
It was not revealed what Altman concealed from the board.
“I loved my time at OpenAI. It was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. Most of all I loved working with such talented people. I will have more to say about what’s next later,” Altman wrote after his departure was confirmed.
Brockman, formerly president at OpenAI revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that he would be leaving the company following the news.
Microsoft’s recruitment of the two senior OpenAI figures comes just a week after it confirmed the build of an in-house custom AI chip that can be used to train large language models and potentially avoid reliance on Nvidia.
Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI is extensive. The US juggernaut retains a “multibillion-dollar investment” in OpenAI worth around US$10 billion.
