At noon on Friday, November 17th, in a move that surprised investors, employees, and the public, OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman was pulled into a Google Meet with board member Ilya Sutskever and was fired. Alongside Altman’s termination, Sutskever fired OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and promoted chief technology officer Mira Murati to CEO. Immediately as the board announced their actions, there was public outrage.
The majority of OpenAI’s employees went public with their disagreement with the decision, posting on social media site X (previously Twitter) to express solidarity with Altman and Brockman against the board. Investors – such as Microsoft – demanded answers about Altman’s termination. Eventually, the entire staff and OpenAI’s investors became furious with the board and demanded the board’s resignation and the reinstatement of Sam Altman.
The day before Altman’s dismissal, Sam Altman and OpenAI hosted OpenAI DevDay, where the company announced their monetization plans and future products — such as ChatGPT 5. Yet, despite the company’s successes, the board fired Sam Altman later that night, stating he “was not consistently candid in his communications” – an answer to which was purposely vague.
The sudden dismissal of the well-liked CEO, coupled with the OpenAI President’s public disapproval and subsequent quitting raised alarm bells. Seeing a company randomly fire its CEO is extremely scary for investors and could damage the $80 billion valuation they’re looking for. These irritated investors push the board to provide a complete reason for Altman’s firing. Furthermore, they demand that if the board could not provide investors with a reason, the board must reinstate Altman as CEO.
As if the investors threatening to pull out were enough damage for the company, the employers threatened to do so as well. In total, an estimated 700 of OpenAI’s 770 engineers threatened that if Sam Altman was not returned to CEO by 5:00 PM PST on Sunday, November 18th, they would quit as well.
On November 19th, the board, fed up with new CEO Mira Murati acting without following the board’s wishes, fired Murati – furthering the instability at the company. Her replacement, the ex-CEO of video streaming site Twitch, Emmett Shear.
The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella was quick to enter into employment talks with Altman. On November 20th, Microsoft agreed to hire Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to “head up a new advanced research team,” under the condition that Altman and Brockman would not return to OpenAI.
Seeing that their company was facing pure turmoil and destruction, OpenAI’s board was forced to react. The board set up an in-person meeting with all major characters; including the board, Altman, and Brockman.
After a discussion that took over a dozen hours, the board and talent came to a consensus. At 1:03 AM on November 22nd, OpenAI announced on X that they had “reached in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers (Chair), and Adam D’Angelo.” All but one member of the original board had been replaced. On the 22nd, his first day back after his dismissal, Greg Brockman posted a selfie on X with hundreds of exuberant employees stating “we are so back.”
Despite the vast changes and dramatic events of the past few days, very little changed besides the complete overturning of the board. The company seems stable, and OpenAI’s valuation is still projected at $80 billion.
So why did the board fire Altman? There are two main theories – neither of which is confirmed. First, as stated by the Wall Street Journal, some believe that after the November 16th OpenAI DevDay – in which Altman proposed many new products – Ilya Sutskever felt Altman was moving too quickly and was caring too little about the possible dangers of fast acceleration. Sutskever publicly denies that his actions were part of Altman’s dismissal. Secondly, as stated by Business Insider, before Altman’s dismissal, Altman was very vocal about board member Helen Toner’s public disapproval of OpenAI’s accelerationist policies.
Whatever the reasons were, chances are, we will never know. What matters is that Sam Altman is back as OpenAI, and the company is on the path to continue growing rapidly.