Sam Altman, who was suddenly removed as CEO and from the board of OpenAI’s headquarters, returned to the office, advocating for reinstatement alongside other departed leaders. After being dismissed by OpenAI’s board of directors, Altman reappeared at the company’s San Francisco headquarters on Sunday, pushing for his reinstatement and that of other recently departed leaders. Interim CEO Mira Murati conveyed that she and the leadership team had invited Altman back, while Greg Brockman, the former chairman and president who resigned following Altman’s termination, also returned to the office on Sunday. Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon expressed optimism about reinstating Altman, Brockman, and three senior researchers who resigned in solidarity on Friday night.
The internal memo circulated among staff mentioned a “breakdown in communication between Sam and the board” as the cause for Altman’s ousting. According to COO Brad Lightcap’s memo, the decision did not respond to any misconduct or issues related to the organization’s finances, business operations, safety, or security/privacy practices.
Altman’s future involvement with OpenAI heavily depends on board members reaching a consensus, prompting speculation about whether he will exit or the board will make the decision. One reason for the current impasse is difficulty in reaching a consensus on the board’s composition and responsibilities in the event of Altman’s reinstatement.
Before his abrupt dismissal, Altman was negotiating fundraising for a specialized AI chip project known as “Tigris,” presenting ideas of custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to compete with NVIDIA’s offerings. Additionally, Altman was seeking financial support for a hardware collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive, and had reportedly approached SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son for backing. Insider sources informed Bloomberg that Altman is in the process of securing “tens of billions of dollars” to launch these ambitious projects.
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