In recent days, the high-tech industry has been thrown into turmoil due to the impeachment case of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. The board of directors at the artificial intelligence company that created ChatGPT have removed founder Altman, citing disagreements over commercialization of new AI technologies as the reason. This decision was later followed by an announcement from Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, stating that Altman and Greg Brockman would join Microsoft to lead a new advanced research team in the field of artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, Emmett Shir, one of the founders of Twitch, has been appointed interim CEO of OpenAI until a permanent CEO is found. The ouster of Altman had an immediate impact on Microsoft’s stock, causing a 1.7% decline. However, after Nadella’s announcement on Twitter, Microsoft shares rose 1.5% in opening trade.
According to stock analysts, Microsoft’s move to recruit Altman is seen as a strategy to prevent him from establishing a competing start-up and risking their leadership in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The decision was viewed as a damage control move by the technology giant and his prominent role in AI and potential instability in OpenAI could impact their commercial relationships with other companies in the industry.
The unusual corporate structure at OpenAI has raised concerns among investors who did not have seats on the board to prevent such coups. This raises questions about future investments in companies with non-traditional corporate structures and may be considered as a lesson when making future decisions regarding these types of organizations.
Despite the controversy surrounding his ouster at OpenAI, Altman’s new role at Microsoft is seen as strategically important for their future in AI development and innovation.