OpenAI’s board of directors is saying goodbye to CEO Sam Altman and replacing him with chief technology officer Mira Murati, the company announced Friday.
The company did not mince words.
“Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.
“The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the company added.
Additionally, OpenAI chairman Greg Brockman will be stepping down from his role on the board, the company said. He will continue to serve as the company’s president.
The OpenAI board includes chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, along with independent directors including Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, entrepreneur Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
With Altman, 38, gone, Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ:MSFT) influence over the company could grow, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives posted on X. The tech giant has invested billions in OpenAI.
Altman out as CEO of OpenAI a shocker but ultimately Microsoft will just have more control of the situation in our view given ownership stake. Altman a key to getting to where the platform is but we see little concern going forward with him gone. A year ago different story.
— Dan Ives (@DivesTech) November 17, 2023
Microsoft shares fell 1.7% Friday to $369.85.
The company has “a long-term partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft remains committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel