Hundreds of OpenAI workers revolt after weekend of drama in SF

On Monday morning, over 500 workers at OpenAI signed onto a letter to the board threatening to quit the company, a number that reportedly later grew to over 700. Late Sunday night, Altman confirmed that he’d be joining Microsoft with former OpenAI President Greg Brockman. In the letter, the employees said they would join their former leaders at the tech giant “imminently” if the board doesn’t resign, replace itself with new directors and bring back Altman and Brockman, who helped co-found the company in 2015.

OpenAI, the for-profit company, is governed by the board of a parent nonprofit also named OpenAI that is dedicated to building safe artificial intelligence. While Microsoft owns 49% of the for-profit company, the tech giant doesn’t have controlling power over it, which cleared the way for the board to suddenly oust Altman on Friday.

“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI,” read the letter from employees to the board, which was shared by Axios. “We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees.” 

OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati signed the letter, after she was appointed interim CEO on Friday when the board announced Altman’s ousting but replaced Sunday with former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI board member and the company’s chief scientist, also signed; he posted early Monday morning on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he regretted his “participation in the board’s actions.”

The employees’ letter said that OpenAI had been in a very strong spot, but that the board “jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company” with how suddenly they fired Altman and removed Brockman from the board. Now, the majority of the company’s staff — many of whom are in-demand AI researchers likely to have extremely good job prospects in this current tech landscape — are threatening to quit.

The collective threat of resignation was the newest twist in a weekendlong drama in San Francisco that began Friday with the announcement that Altman was being fired over concerns he had not been “consistently candid in his communications with the board.” Each hour seemed to bring new developments, with OpenAI employees posting on X and the tech media pouncing on every twist.

Texas Rep. Will Hurd, a former OpenAI board member, flew to San Francisco to help with the negotiations, per The New York Times. Reports from Bloomberg and The Information emerged, saying that Altman had been discussing forming a new company with semiconductor executives to make chips for training AI models. 

On Saturday evening, OpenAI employees met at Altman’s mansion in Russian Hill, The Information reported. By midnight, the outlet said, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer had sent out a memo writing that the company was “optimistic” it could bring back Altman and Brockman.

On Sunday, Altman was back in OpenAI’s offices in San Francisco, posting on X a photo of himself holding a guest badge. As negotiations stretched on, a deliveryman at one point showed up with a dozen drinks from Bay Area chain Boba Guys, the Times reported.

In the end, the board wouldn’t cave to pressure from investors, workers and top leadership to bring Altman back on. The Times reported Sunday night that the board sent out a memo to staff, writing that it “firmly stands by its decision as the only path to advance and defend the mission of OpenAI.” 

Shortly before midnight Sunday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote that Altman and Brockman would join his company to “lead a new advanced AI research team.” He added that they would make the move “together with colleagues” but did not specify.

Meanwhile, the OpenAI board offered the interim CEO job to longtime San Francisco tech entrepreneur Emmett Shear, who wrote on social media early Monday morning that he’d accepted. The move, which the board announced in the reported memo, pushed Murati out of the interim CEO position after just two days.

The weekend’s immediate winner appears to be Microsoft, the $2.75-trillion-market-cap company that had invested heavily in OpenAI. With uncertainty ruling the weekend, Nadella pulled off a late-night move Sunday to sign the two leaders whom OpenAI employees seem willing to follow. He hinted that the newcomers would be able to create a new company within Microsoft, which also owns GitHub and LinkedIn. OpenAI workers’ Monday letter to the board said they had all been assured positions at the new subsidiary, should they choose to join.

In response to Nadella’s Sunday night announcement on X, Altman posted, simply, “the mission continues.”

Hear of anything happening at OpenAI or another tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at [email protected] or on Signal at 628-204-5452.