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

With the ousted OpenAI CEO actively discussing a new artificial intelligence venture, investors in his previous company are trying to bring him back using Microsoft and key employees as leverage.

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.