Sam Altman was reinstated late Tuesday as OpenAI’s chief executive, the company said, successfully reversing his ouster by the company’s board last week after a campaign waged by his allies, employees and investors.
The board of directors will be overhauled, jettisoning several members who had opposed Altman. Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of Quora, will be the only holdover.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” OpenAI said in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.”
The return of Altman and Greg Brockman, the company’s president, and the remaking of the board, capped a frenetic five days that upended OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world’s highest-profile artificial intelligence companies.
The company’s revamped board of directors will include Taylor, an early Facebook officer and former co-CEO of Salesforce; Summers, a former Treasury secretary; and D’Angelo
Taylor will act as board chair, the company said.
D’Angelo was leading the negotiations, according to two people in touch with the board. The general framework for the changes was in place by late Sunday, one of those people said.
Determining the composition of the board slowed down the decision to let Altman return, according to that person and one other. OpenAI called the new board its “initial” board, indicating it could expand.
A person close to the board’s deliberations Tuesday said that D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner pressed for certain concessions from Altman, including an independent investigation into his leadership of OpenAI.
In the end, Toner and McCauley agreed to step down from the board because it was clear that it needed a fresh start, this person close to deliberations said. If all of them stepped down, they worried that it would suggest the board erred even though they collectively felt they did the right thing, this person said.
Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, supported the move. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, said on X that he was “encouraged by the changes to OpenAI board, calling it a “first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance.” He said Altman and Brockman should return to OpenAI.
OpenAI’s board surprised Altman and the company’s employees on Friday afternoon when it told him he was being pushed out. Brockman, who co-founded the company with Altman and others, resigned in protest.
The ouster kicked off efforts by Altman, 38, his allies in the tech industry and OpenAI’s employees to force the company’s board to bring him back. On Sunday evening, after a weekend of negotiations, the board said it would stick with its decision.
But in a head-spinning development just hours later, Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, said that Altman, Brockman and others would be joining the company to start a new advanced artificial intelligence lab.
Most of OpenAI’s more than 700 employees signed a letter telling the board they would walk out and follow Altman to Microsoft if he wasn’t reinstated, throwing the future of the startup into jeopardy.
“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,” Altman said in a post to X. “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.”
Four board members — Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI founder; D’Angelo; Toner, a director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology; and McCauley, an entrepreneur and computer scientist — had initially decided to push Altman out.
But as the employee revolt grew, Sutskever repented in a message on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions.” He also signed the letter. Now that Altman has been reinstated and a new board is in place, Brockman, who has worked closely with Altman for more than a decade, will also return to OpenAI. Sutskever is no longer on the board but remains an OpenAI employee.
“Ilya is thrilled that Sam is back as CEO and he has been working tirelessly for days to make this happen,” said Sutskever’s lawyer, Alex Weingarten. “It is what is best for the company.”
OpenAI employees celebrated a return to normalcy Tuesday night, after five days of uncertainty. Workers had been given the week off for Thanksgiving, but many remained in the office or glued to their screens to follow the drama. “Thank God,” one employee said. “We’re so back,” said another.
Thrive Capital, which is leading a new funding offer than will value OpenAI at more than $80 billion, said it would continue to partner with OpenAI “now and in the future.”
Altman phoned The New York Times and said: “I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving.”
The New York Times Times News Service
