Is Sam Altman Making a Comeback to OpenAI?

Days after tech genius Sam Altman was ousted from Artificial Intelligence firm OpenAI, reports now suggest a potential comeback may be in the works.

Will Sam Altman Relead OpenAI

The OpenAI board has faced a lot of criticism from the tech community and the company’s investors over its decision to remove Sam Altman as CEO. In the leadership transition announcement shared on November 17, the OpenAI board heaped serious allegations on Altman, claiming it lost confidence in its ability to continually lead the firm.

It was also pointed out that Sam Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” After what he called a deliberative review process, the board named Mira Murati, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, to lead as interim CEO.

Taking to social media, Sam Altman recently shared a post that reads “i love the openai team so much,” a comment that is being interpreted by many to mean he might be exploring making a comeback to the firm.

This comeback thesis was solidified when Greg Brockman who served OpenAI as President until recently when he tendered his resignation in protest to the “coup like” removal of Sam Altman. In response to the Altman post, Brockman posted a heart emoji as comment, spurring many to assume the return of both co-founders is a matter of when not if.

Community Reaction to the Ongoing Drama

Shocking as the leadership transition at OpenAI is, investors have reached out to commiserate with Sam Altman. As reported by NDTV, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft Corporate, one of the biggest investors in OpenAI, has reached out to Altman, promising to support him in his next steps.

Maintaining a balance, Nadella has also reportedly reached out to Mira Murati to express support as the ongoing feud is considered a power play among the board members.

As an entrepreneur with deep affinity to crypto and blockchain, the Web3 community has also lent their support to Altman. Two prominent commentaries on this matter came from Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson and Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong.

While Hoskinson has extended an open invitation to Altman to come build a Decentralized LLM on Cardano, Brian Armstrong has called on other OpenAI employees to show solidarity by taking their leave from the firm. Notably, OpenAI employees have threatened to leave should the board refuse to reinstate Sam Altman, lending credence to the possibility of the tech genius returning to the firm.