Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman have joined Microsoft to lead the company’s new artificial intelligence research unit.
Satya Nadella, the CEO of the tech giant, made the announcement early Monday, capping off a weekend of drama that began with Altman’s surprise removal by OpenAI’s board.In a post on X, Nadella stated that Altman and Brockman will lead “a new advanced AI research team” at Microsoft, “along with colleagues.”
The Microsoft CEO, on the other hand, stated that his company is “committed” to its partnership with OpenAI and has “confidence in our product roadmap.” Altman simply tweeted, “The mission continues,” in response to Nadella’s post, while Brockman has yet to respond.
Other former OpenAI employees will join Altman and Brockman, according to Nadella’s post, but no names are mentioned.
In a subsequent post, Nadella stated that Altman will serve as the new unit’s CEO and that the team will operate similarly to other Microsoft-owned entities such as “GitHub, Mojang Studios, and LinkedIn.”
Nadella’s announcement came after a dramatic weekend that began with Altman’s unexpected firing from OpenAI by the company’s board on Friday. The board announced the move in a press release, saying it was the result of a review that found Altman was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board” and that it no longer had confidence in Altman’s “ability to continue leading OpenAI.” In response to the board’s decision, OpenAI President and Cofounder Greg Brockman announced his resignation later that day. Over the weekend, key OpenAI investors attempted to intervene to reinstate Altman.
However, the company’s board of directors named former Twitch CEO Emmett Schear as his replacement on Sunday. Many of Microsoft’s existing AI offerings, such as Bing Chat, Windows Copilot, and Github Copilot, are based on OpenAI technology. It is unclear whether Altman and Brockman have been brought on board to create in-house substitutes or to work on something entirely different. In his post, Nadella stated that the company still believes in OpenAI and is looking forward “to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them.”