[Developing Story] From OpenAI to Microsoft: The Altman Timeline

Since AI has begun to make up the backbone of our infrastructure as startup founders, we think it is necessary to keep you all updated on what’s going on at OpenAI pertaining to Sam Altman.

We bring you the latest updates on Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, who has been in the news over the past two weeks. Here’s a timeline of the events:

OpenAI’s Leadership Changes

On Friday, November 18, 2023, Sam Altman was ousted from his role as the CEO of OpenAI. The board cited a lack of “confidence” in Altman’s ability to lead the company.

Greg Brockman’s Departure

Following Altman’s ousting, OpenAI President Greg Brockman announced his resignation. Brockman stated that he was stepping down from his post just hours after Altman’s departure.

The Sequence of Events

The sequence of events leading to these departures began with a text from Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and board member, to Altman. During the meeting, Sutskever informed Altman that he was being fired.

The Aftermath and Speculations

The departures at OpenAI have led to speculations about growing tensions between the nonprofit and profit arms of OpenAI.

Prior to the Departures

Two weeks before these events, during OpenAI’s first developer conference, Altman announced that the company was building GPT-5.

Altman’s New Role at Microsoft

In a surprising turn of events, Sam Altman has landed a new job at Microsoft. Despite reports that OpenAI executives have been working to bring Sam Altman back, the former CEO announced on Sunday that he will be joining Microsoft. After Altman’s bid to return to the AI company was unsuccessful, Microsoft said that he would lead a new advanced AI research team at the tech giant.

Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.