While talks to bring Sam Altman back as OpenAI CEO are ongoing as of this writing, there's a chance those talks fail and Altman could join Microsoft to lead a new advanced artificial intelligence team. He may also bring hundreds of OpenAI employees.
The latest report from Axios claims that Microsoft will not wait for the negotiations to end. Microsoft's hypothesis is that it might bring former OpenAI team members into its own workforce. According to reports, Microsoft has prepared office space and set up computers and other equipment to welcome these potential OpenAI employees who join collectively.
According to reports, the office space will be located in LinkedIn’s San Francisco office, only 10 minutes away from OpenAI’s headquarters.
The company is preparing workspaces, preparing work clusters and Macs to ensure OpenAI employees can get to work immediately, sources said. The company also has legal and human resources staff ready to handle recruiting and onboarding.
The vast majority of OpenAI employees (more than 95%) signed a letter to the company's board members, calling on the board to resign en masse and reinstate Altman as CEO of OpenAI, or else they can join Altman's team at Microsoft.
Speaking of which, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella would not directly answer questions from the business press on Monday about how he would feel if Altman decided to return to OpenAI, as he had offered Altman a job at Microsoft. Regarding the prospect of adding new employees, Nadella said: "It depends on the OpenAI employees whether they stay there or come to Microsoft, so I am open to both options."
Regardless, the next few hours are going to be very interesting, and we'll keep you posted on how this crazy story ultimately plays out.