Sam Altman will return to OpenAI as director, new board of directors has also been formed

The OpenAI Company has reached an agreement in principle to reinstate Sam Altman as the company's CEO, who was fired by the board of directors days ago and was already confirmed to be moving to Microsoft. In addition, a new board of directors has been formed.

OpenAI, the company that created the ChatGPT chatbot working by artificial intelligence, announced the return of Sam Altman to the position of executive director on its X social network page.

"We have agreed in principle that Sam Altman will return to OpenAI as CEO," the post said.

Sam Altman, in turn, posted on X saying that he is looking forward to getting back to OpenAI. “With the new board and with Satya’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft," he wrote.

Greg Brockman, the company's president, who also left after Altman's dismissal, also announced his return to the company.

How did it all start?

Altman was fired as CEO of OpenAI on Nov. 17 after the board concluded that he had "been consistently dishonest in his communications with the board, which limited his ability to fulfill his duties."

As Bloomberg reported, Altman had a conflict with board members, especially company co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskver. The disagreements concerned the development of a new type and stronger generative artificial intelligence.

Microsoft, which is OpenAI's largest investor, later announced that Altman and Brockman would lead the corporation's artificial intelligence research team. At the same time, Nadella announced that he was ready to accept Altman.

After Altman's departure, most of OpenAI's employees threatened to quit and demanded his return. Seven hundreds of the company's 770 employees signed a letter threatening to leave Microsoft with the fired CEO. Investors also demanded Altman's return.

Interestingly, the exact reason for Altman's dismissal is not yet known. The board initially explained its decision by saying "the CEO has been consistently dishonest in his communications with the board of directors, which has interfered with his ability to fulfill his duties." But board members later confirmed that Altman's dismissal was not related to "abuse" or "security." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, for his part, publicly stated that he had not been given any explanation.

Against the backdrop of the OpenAI scandal, Microsoft's stock price rose by 2% and reached a record high. At the close of trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange on Monday, the company's shares were trading at $377.44 per share, which is their highest value in the company's history.