Win-Win For Microsoft: Satya Nadella Hires Ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Stocks Go Up

Microsoft seems to have won amidst the risen tumultuous circumstances post termination of Sam Altman from his role of CEO at OpenAI. Satya Nadella hires Altman and co-founder Brockman, leading to visible effects in the stock market.

Saihaj Kaur Madan

Updated on: 20 November 2023 11:04 pm

Microsoft Hires Ousted CEO Of Open AI, Sam Altman

In a dramatic twist in the chaos stirred on Friday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hires Sam Altman, 3 days after being sacked by the OpenAI board. Altman was terminated from his position at OpenAI last Friday following the board's loss of confidence in his leadership. Over the weekend, discussions took place to explore the possibility of Altman returning to OpenAI. However, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that both Altman and co-founder Brockman will now be heading Microsoft's newly established advanced AI research team.

We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett…
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023

Altman will have the CEO title of this new group. This move aligns with Microsoft's tendency to appoint CEOs for significant divisions, indicating potential substantial plans for the advanced AI research team. Altman confirmed his move to Microsoft by reposting a message from Nadella, adding, "the mission continues." In response, Nadella dropped some hints about his perspective on Altman's new CEO role at Microsoft.

I’m super excited to have you join as CEO of this new group, Sam, setting a new pace for innovation. We’ve learned a lot over the years about how to give founders and innovators space to build independent identities and cultures within Microsoft, including GitHub, Mojang Studios,…
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023

Brockman disclosed that Microsoft's new team will incorporate key talent from OpenAI. The phrase "OpenAI is nothing without its people" is also being shared by OpenAI employees on X, indicating the possibility of more resignations in the future.
?

We are going to build something new & it will be incredible.

Initial leadership (more soon): @merettm @sidorszymon @aleks_madry @sama @gdb

The mission continues. https://t.co/oAerJnMYQm
— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 20, 2023

Microsoft maintains a "multibillion dollar investment" in OpenAI, estimated to be around $10 billion. Serving as the exclusive cloud partner for OpenAI, Microsoft's cloud services drive all OpenAI workloads, spanning products, API services, and research. The newly appointed CEO at the Microsoft AI Research Team, Sam Altman stated shed light on the way ahead for their partnership.

satya and my top priority remains to ensure openai continues to thrive

we are committed to fully providing continuity of operations to our partners and customers

the openai/microsoft partnership makes this very doable
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 20, 2023

Rishi Jaluria, managing director at RBC Capital Markets, characterized the recent days as the "most eventful" in his over a decade of covering software. He perceives the outcome as a significant victory for Microsoft, considering the tech giant as the forefront leader in generative AI. In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, he stated, “Customers would get worried. I think by bringing in Sam and Greg, and Sam is really the ultimate visionary when it comes to AI, it's really the best-case scenario for Microsoft."

Microsoft shares closed at $377.44 on Monday, up more than 2%, after initially falling on Friday afternoon following the announcement Altman was out at OpenAI. These developments have been a ladder to Microsoft securing the most sought-after and talented AI data scientists and engineers amid the turbulent fiasco prompted by OpenAI. Despite a rocky few days and constant tumult with regards to its positioning within the chaos as a major investor, Microsoft has been able to carve its way amidst the circumstances and secure a win-win for itself.