Microsoft Hires Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Microsoft has recruited Sam Altman, the former CEO of OpenAI, along with co-founder Greg Brockman. Altman’s dismissal from OpenAI on Friday, citing a loss of confidence in his leadership, led to unsuccessful negotiations over the weekend to bring him back. Instead, Emmett Shear, former CEO and co-founder of Twitch, has been named interim CEO of OpenAI.
In response, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the hiring of Altman and Brockman to lead a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft. The move comes after Altman had been pitching a custom AI Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chip project, codenamed “Tigris,” to investors. Altman’s hiring aligns with Microsoft’s recent efforts to develop custom AI chips for its Azure data centers, signaling a significant move in the AI research space.