Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday announced that the company has hired Open AI’s former CEO Sam Altman and former president Greg Brockman and their colleagues to lead a new advanced AI (artificial intelligence) research team.
Microsoft Hires Ousted Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
These two will be joined by “colleagues” such as Microsoft’s former OpenAI top talent, Szymon Sidor, Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, and more.
“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,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
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. We look forward to getting to know Emmett…
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023
Nadella, in the X post, also mentioned that the company’s partnership with OpenAI continues and is committed to the start-up. He also added how the company looks forward to working with the newly appointed OpenAI CEO, Emmett Shear.
“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. We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them,” he added.
For those unaware, OpenAI surprisingly fired Altman on Friday after they said it “no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
While Altman tried negotiating over the weekend to return as OpenAI CEO, the negotiations fell apart with the board naming former Twitch CEO and co-founder Emmett Shear as the interim CEO, reported The Verge, citing multiple sources.
Altman also acknowledged Nadella’s X post and reshared it by saying, “the mission continues.” Nadella then responded to his post by briefly explaining what Altman’s new role might be within Microsoft.
“We’ve learned a lot over the years about how to give founders and innovators space to build independent identities and cultures within Microsoft, including GitHub, Mojang Studios, and LinkedIn, and I’m looking forward to having you do the same,” Nadella said.
