Irrespective of where Sam is, he’s working with Microsoft, says Satya Nadella

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday announced that OpenAI's former CEO Sam Altman was joing the tech giant to lead a new advanced AI research team. (Image credit: AFP)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has hinted at being open to Sam Altman returning to OpenAI or joining his company, in response to a question during an interview with CNBC International.

"(We’re) committed to OpenAI and Sam (Altman), irrespective of the configuration," Nadella told broadcast network CNBC International. He added that Microsoft could innovate on its own but chose to "explicitly partner with OpenAI." He emphasized that this partnership depends on people at OpenAI staying there or coming to Microsoft, stating, "I’m open to both options".

Also read | A series of unfortunate events: A timeline of Sam Altman’s ouster from OpenAI

In an interview to Bloomberg TV, Nadella was quoted as saying, “I remain confident in Sam and his leadership and capability, and that’s why we want to welcome him to Microsoft.” He added, “Irrespective of where Sam is, he’s working with Microsoft.”

Since November 18, when OpenAI's board fired its CEO Sam Altman, there has been confusion whether the ousted CEO is heading to Microsoft or not. On November 21, The Verge reported that Sam Altman was still in the process of ironing out differences with OpenAI's board. One of the members, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who initially led the move to depose Altman, has now changed his stance. Sutskever stated on X that he deeply regretted his "participation in the board's actions". This revelation came hours after OpenAI employees rallied behind Altman and called for the board's resignation.

Also read | OpenAI Turmoil: Employees rally behind Altman, demand board resignation: Report

The co-founder of OpenAI, Greg Brackman was also removed by the board on a short notice, before company's CTO Mira Mulati was announced as interim CEO. When talks with Altman about a possible return fell through, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear was then suddenly pushed into the interim CEO role at OpenAI.

In the middle of all of this, close to 500 employees at OpenAI have threatened resignation, unless the board were to resign and Altman is reinstated as CEO. If that happens, then OpenAI would have changed CEO's three times in three days.