Sam Altman At Microsoft, Staff Rebellion At OpenAI

After three days of high drama at the world's à most closely watched startup, which many compared to a coup, Microsoft Corp. capped the weekend with one of its own: the software giant hired ousted. OpenAI chief Sam Altman.

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The moves reshape the world of artificial intelligence (AI) given that OpenAI is behind the hugely popular ChatGPT app that took generative AI into the mainstream, and Altman was its figurehead.

He was unexpectedly fired by OpenAI's board on Friday, setting off a frenzied weekend campaign to reinstate him, led by OpenAI executives and key investors including Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, which had pledged more than $10 billion for the startup.

Instead, OpenAI's board replaced Altman with Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, in a stinging rebuke to its investors. Nadella then announced that he had recruited Altman and Greg Brockman, another OpenAI co-founder who had quit in protest, to lead a newly formed in-house AI research unit at Microsoft, casting a shadow over the future of its prized investment.