OpenAI investors push for return of ousted CEO Sam Altman

Sam Altman is being lined up for a surprise return as the chief executive of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI amid pressure from investors to reverse his surprise ousting .

Altman was fired by the company board on Friday, citing a failure to be “candid in his communications”, in a move that shocked Silicon Valley.

However, OpenAI’s investors – who include Microsoft – are now pushing for his reinstatement, according to multiple reports.

On Saturday, the Information, a tech news website, reported that OpenAI was “optimistic” it could bring back Altman.

The report quoted a memo from the company’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, telling staff that an effort was under way to bring back Altman and other senior colleagues who had left. Altman’s departure was followed by the resignations of Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, and three senior researchers: Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Mądry and Szymon Sidor.

“We are still working towards a resolution and we remain optimistic,” Kwon wrote, according to the Information. “By resolution, we mean bringing back Sam, Greg, Jakub [Pachocki], Szymon [Sidor], Aleksander [Mądry] and other colleagues (sorry if I missed you!) and remaining the place where people who want to work on AGI [artificial general intelligence] research, safety, products and policy can do their best work.”

Kwon said the California-based company hoped to update staff further on Sunday. Early on Sunday, Altman posted on X: “i love the openai team so much”.

i love the openai team so much

— Sam Altman November 19, 2023 According to the Wall Street Journal, Altman is considering a return but has told shareholders that he wants a new board and governance structure as a precondition, while he balances the option of starting a new company with former OpenAI colleagues. The WSJ said Altman was set to decide between the two options this weekend.

Altman and Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive have been discussing building a new AI hardware device, according to reports. It was also reported that the SoftBank chief executive, Masayoshi Son, had been involved in the conversation.

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Microsoft, the biggest investor in OpenAI, reportedly supports Altman’s reinstatement, along with the fellow investor Thrive Capital, a venture capital fund and the second largest investor. Khosla Ventures, an early backer of OpenAI, wants Altman back at OpenAI but “will back him in whatever he does next”, the fund’s founder, Vinod Khosla, posted on X on Saturday.

Altman’s sacking was over a “breakdown of communications”, not “malfeasance”, the chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, wrote in another internal company memo on Saturday, according to Reuters.