OpenAI Investors Plot Last-Minute Push With Microsoft To Reinstate Sam Altman As CEO

The Verge reports that OpenAI's board 'is in discussions with Sam Altman to return to the company as its CEO, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.' But one of those people said Altman 'is 'ambivalent' about coming back and would want significant governance changes.'

In a possibly related development, Forbes reports that 'A day after OpenAI's board of directors fired former CEO Sam Altman in a shock development, investors in the company are plotting how to restore him, in what would amount to an even more surprising counter-coup.'

Venture capital firms holding positions in OpenAI's for-profit entity have discussed working with Microsoft and senior employees at the company to bring back Altman, even as he has signaled to some that he intends to launch a new startup, four sources told Forbes.

Whether the companies would be able to exert enough pressure to pull off such a move — and do it fast enough to keep Altman interested — is unclear.
The playbook, a source told Forbes would be straightforward: make OpenAI's new management, under acting CEO Mira Murati and the remaining board, accept that their situation was untenable through a combination of mass revolt by senior researchers, withheld cloud computing credits from Microsoft, and a potential lawsuit from investors. Facing such a combination, the thinking is that management would have to accept Altman back, likely leading to the subsequent departure of those believed to have pushed for Altman's removal, including cofounder Ilya Sutskever and board director Adam D'Angelo, the CEO of Quora.
Should such an effort not come together in time, Altman and OpenAI ex-president Greg Brockman were set to raise capital for a new startup, two sources said. 'If they don't figure it out asap, they'd just go ahead with Newco,' one source added.

Also from the Verge: people close to OpenAI 'say more departures are in the works'.

The Information confirms Altman 'has been telling investors that he is planning to launch a new AI venture.' They also report that Altman 'has been in discussions with semiconductor executives, including chip designer Arm, on Friday morning about early efforts to design new chips that would lower costs for large-language model companies like OpenAI, a person familiar with the talks said. That effort would likely take years.'

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