Sam Altman wins power struggle, returns to OpenAI with new board
Enlarge / OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West on November 16, 2023 in San Francisco. (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan )
After five days of chaos triggered by OpenAI's firing of CEO Sam Altman, the executive is set to return to the company, while the board of directors that fired him is to be almost entirely remade. OpenAI said last night that it "reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO."
Altman had accepted a job on Sunday from Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI. Microsoft also offered to hire OpenAI's employees, who threatened to resign en masse if Altman wasn't brought back. According to Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella supported his return to OpenAI.
"with the new board and w satya's support, i'm looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft," Altman wrote. Altman also wrote, "i love openai, and everything i've done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together."