OpenAI Employees Threaten Mass Walkout And Join Microsoft Subsidiary Unless Board Reinstates Sam Altman

OpenAI employees have threatened to resign en masse if the company's board of directors does not reinstate its ousted chief executive Sam Altman and then step down, media reports said on Monday.

In an open letter, around 550 of OpenAI's 700 employees sought the resignation of the board and said they might walk out if Altman is not reinstated.

Last week, ChatGPT developer OpenAI ousted Sam Altman, the company's co-founder and CEO from his post after the company's board of directors maintained that they had lost confidence in Sam's leadership role. Sam Altman's dismissal news sent shockwaves in the tech world leaving bigwigs like Microsoft CEO and others to take note of the matter.

The letter to OpenAI's four remaining board directors says: "Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment, and care for our mission and employees."

"We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently unless all current board members resign....and the board reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman."

Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Brad Lightcap also were among the letter's signees.

Earlier during the day, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that Altman and Brockman would be joining the tech giant.

On Monday, Nadella wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI's new leadership team and working with them.

And we're extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success."