Brockman and a number of senior researchers resigned in solidarity after Altman was abruptly fired on Friday. According to The Verge, additional employees have reportedly indicated their support on social media by pledging to resign as well and follow the two to other projects. As opposition to the board’s initial decision increases this weekend, the status of Altman and the future leadership of OpenAI have remained a topic of discussion. The Verge reported on Saturday night that the board had “agreed in principle” to resign if it decided to reinstate him as CEO. However, it is said that the board was unable to come to a consensus in time and missed the decision’s deadline.
Bloomberg claims that this is at least partially due to their inability to come to an understanding regarding the board’s appearance and function in the event of his reinstatement. According to Bloomberg, Altman wants the current board to be abolished if he wants to return, among other “governance changes,” including the appointment of a new Microsoft executive and the removal of former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor from the board.
Altman, his staff, and investors were shocked when he was fired as CEO and from the OpenAI board of directors. There has been a lot of speculation about the cause of this. According to an internal memo that was sent to staff that morning and that Axios saw,” a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board” led to the decision to remove Altman from office. According to the memo from COO Brad Lightcap, it “was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices.”
Prior to his unannounced firing, Altman was reportedly raising money for the” Tigris” custom AI chip project, according to Bloomberg. Altman has already proposed custom tensor processing units ( TPUs ) that would compete with NVIDIA’s to potential Middle Eastern investors, according to Bloomberg and The New York Times, which previously covered his plans for other AI ventures.
Altman reportedly approached SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son in search of funding for his hardware collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive. According to sources with knowledge of the discussions, Altman is attempting to raise “tens of billions” to fund these projects.