Sam Altman Joined Microsoft, Emmett Shear Is The New OpenAI CEO

Sam Altman, the former CEO of OpenAI, and Greg Brockman, the former president, will be joining a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft, Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO at Microsoft, announced on X (formerly Twitter) on November 20.

In the post, Nadella mentioned that Altman will serve as the CEO of the new advanced AI research team.

Over the weekend, the tech industry was surprised by the removal of OpenAI’s co-founder and former CEO, Sam Altman, in what is being called an alleged coup. The board, led by co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, announced Altman’s ousting, catching even key investor Microsoft off guard.

Several OpenAI employees, including co-founder Brockman, resigned from the AI research lab in protest over the weekend. Nadella said that Altman and Brockman will be joined by “colleagues,” implying that Microsoft is also hiring OpenAI employees who resigned over the weekend.
OpenAI announced Altman’s exit on November 18 in a blog post stating that he had been inconsistent with his communications with the board. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the blog post read.

Nadella’s post also confirmed the appointment of former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as the new OpenAI CEO, expressing anticipation of working with Shear and the new leadership team. Emmett Shear takes over from Mira Murati, who publicly supported Altman.

Nadella’s announcement comes after Microsoft revealed the development of an AI chip capable of training large language models, a strategic move to reduce dependence on Nvidia and potentially cut costs.