Microsoft CEO ‘comfortable’ with OpenAI non-profit despite Altman ouster
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at a Microsoft event in San Francisco, California March 27, 2014. Nadella introduced Microsoft Office for iPad and the Enterprise Mobility Suite, a set of cloud services. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File photo
DAVOS, Switzerland – Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday said he had no issue with partner OpenAI’s governance structure, two months after the startup’s non-profit board temporarily ousted its chief executive without regard to investors’ interests.
“I’m comfortable. I have no issues with any structure,” Nadella said at a Bloomberg News event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.
The surprise November dismissal of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman over an alleged communication breakdown triggered a crisis at the startup behind ChatGPT, in which employees threatened to resign en masse and go work for Microsoft, which is backing OpenAI with billions of dollars.
READ: OpenAI staff threaten mass exodus to join ex-CEO Altman
OpenAI’s board, charged with protecting the startup non-profit’s mission to develop powerful artificial intelligence that benefits humanity, ultimately restored Altman days later.
Microsoft has since secured a non-voting observer position on the OpenAI board.
Competition authorities in Europe, Britain and reportedly the United States have started looking closely at the Microsoft-OpenAI relationship. Their agreement guarantees the Windows maker large chunks of the startup’s profits depending on certain conditions, a person briefed on the terms has said.
READ: OpenAI reinstates Sam Altman as CEO after his tumultuous ouster
According to Nadella, the fact that Microsoft does not fully own OpenAI distinguished their deal in a pro-competitive way.
“Partnerships is one avenue of, in fact, having competition,” he said.
Microsoft’s investments in computing power and years-old bet on OpenAI before its ChatGPT fame, Nadella said, were a “highly risky bet” and “not all conventional wisdom”.
