Sam Altman agrees to return to OpenAI in a bizarre reversal of fortunes

Sam Altman has agreed to return to lead OpenAI, the company said in a post on X, just days after his surprise ouster as chief executive and an employee backlash that threatened to undermine what has been the leading company in the fledgling artificial intelligence industry.

“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” the post said.

In his own post on X, formerly Twitter, Altman wrote that he is “looking forward” to returning to OpenAI and building on the firm’s “strong partnership” with Microsoft, which is the ChatGPT maker’s biggest financial backer.

The announcement appears to bring to an end days of chaos for the AI industry that included negotiations over who should lead OpenAI and how the firm should be run, as well as broader discussions about just how fast the arms race to develop AI technology should be moving.

The details of Altman’s firing and re-hiring remain murky. In its announcement of Altman’s firing, OpenAI claimed that Altman had been insufficiently “candid” with the board.

That ambiguous language sent the rumor mill flying. But a key factor in Altman’s ouster was the presence of tensions between Altman, who favored pushing AI development more aggressively, and members of the original OpenAI board, who wanted to move more cautiously, according to CNN contributor Kara Swisher, who spoke to sources knowledgeable about the crisis.

As of Monday morning, Nadella had announced that Altman — along with fellow OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who quit the startup Friday after Altman’s ouster — would be joining Microsoft to lead a new AI research division. OpenAI said it had hired former Twitch chief Emmett Shear as interim CEO.

But then hundreds of OpenAI employees, nearly the company’s entire staff, threatened to leave, potentially for Microsoft, if the company’s board didn’t resign and reinstate Altman as CEO.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated.