According to news on November 22, Sam Altman has returned to OpenAI as CEO on Tuesday, US time. He agreed to an internal independent investigation into the reasons for his dismissal from the board, according to people familiar with the matter. On Friday, four OpenAI board members announced Altman's firing in a blog post, saying he was "not candid enough" with the board, but did not elaborate on the reasons. The board refused to explain the reasons for the dismissal to employees, sparking massive protests.

Altman and former president Greg Brockman did not regain their board seats. Key figures in Altman’s current firing, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers established the initial board of directors.

As part of their agreement to return to OpenAI, Altman and Brockman agreed that the three would form a board of directors, the person said.

Altman and his team have tried to gain more control, including by disbanding the entire board of directors, the people said. Altman has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Without more control, Altman will face questions from investors about how to avoid a similar situation from happening again. Altman has been a key recruiter, fundraiser and decision-maker for OpenAI and is admired by investors. He had planned to raise $100 billion to develop artificial intelligence that could reason and learn autonomously like humans. OpenAI still maintains the model of a not-for-profit institution (a three-person board of directors) overseeing a for-profit institution, which is responsible for managing employees and operating the business.

Shareholders including Microsoft, Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz believe Altman can bring returns to them. Altman said he has no shares in OpenAI. Thrive had planned to become the main buyer of OpenAI employee shares, valuing the company at about $85 billion, but the crisis over Altman's dismissal put the deal on hold.

Although it failed to do so, Ultraman's reinstatement ended four and a half days of tension at OpenAI. Most of the company's employees threatened to resign and join Microsoft if the board didn't bring Altman back.

On Tuesday, Altman stayed with Brockman, OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, chief strategy officer Jason Kwon, chief operating officer Brad Lightcap and other executives at Altman's home in San Francisco, waiting for the final outcome of the negotiations. Board member Helen Toner was a key dissenter, and the two clashed before Altman was fired.

Celebrate triggering fire alarm

After OpenAI chief technology officer Mulati notified employees of Altman's reinstatement, OpenAI's research director Bob McGrew also came to Altman's home. Soon after, most of them left. Brockman and a woman who appeared to be his wife Anna were gushing over the phone, thanking someone, and they looked happy. "I didn't think we were going to save everyone," one OpenAI employee said as they left.

Later, many employees flocked to OpenAI’s Mission District offices to join in the celebration. Employees hugged, drank, celebrated and even set off the fire alarm. Dozens of employees were then herded outside into the courtyard, where the celebrations continued. Two fire trucks arrived, but firefighters inspected the building and left. An employee said a smoke machine at the party set off an alarm and everyone later returned to the building.

Altman posted on After Altman was fired, the OpenAI board refused to reinstate him, and Microsoft said it would hire Altman, Brockman and others. More than 95% of OpenAI employees have committed to join Microsoft with Altman.

Altman and his team must now work to get OpenAI back on track, including repairing relationships with partners and customers. Previously, as the future of OpenAI's products was uncertain, these partners and customers had begun to consider using competitors' products.

Licking wounds silently

In addition, Ultraman also needs to work hard to repair the wounds within the company. He faced resistance from members of co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s “Superalignment” team, which works to ensure that the company does not develop artificial intelligence that is harmful to society or unleash uncontrollable self-learning artificial intelligence.

According to reports, tensions between the Super Alignment team and Ultraman have been going on for months. Co-founder Sutskefer, one of the board members who fired Altman, repeatedly told employees that he and other directors acted out of a responsibility to improve OpenAI's mission. But employees overwhelmingly supported Altman after refusing to explain his alleged lies to the board.

Mulati demonstrated his loyalty to Altman after being named interim CEO. As a result, by Sunday night, the board could only replace her by appointing former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. At the time, Sützkefer reiterated his decision to fire Altman. After a majority of employees signed a letter calling for the board's resignation and Altman's reinstatement, Sutschifer also reversed his stance on Monday and signed the letter while posting on X to express regret for his actions.

However, the standoff between Altman and Quora co-founder D'Angelo and Tasha McCauley, founder of Silicon Valley robotics company Fellow Robotics, remains. OpenAI board representatives are said to have even reached out to rival Anthropic, but talks have made no progress. The final breakthrough came when Altman conceded that he would not return to the board while DeAngelo remained on the job and agreed to an investigation into his conduct leading up to his firing. (little)