OpenAI unlikely to offer board seat to Microsoft, other investors: Source

Bengaluru – ChatGPT owner OpenAI is not expected to offer Microsoft and other investors including Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital seats on its new board, a person familiar with the matter said on Nov 28.

In a few tumultuous days, OpenAI ousted its chief executive and founder Sam Altman without any detailed cause, setting off alarm bells among investors and employees, and then reinstated him with the promise of a new board.

Mr Altman’s exit sparked confusion about the future of the start-up at the centre of an artificial intelligence boom.

“I do not know that it’s going to be the choice of OpenAI to leave Microsoft off the board,” said Mr Thomas Hayes, chairman of hedge fund Great Hill Capital.

“Microsoft will have something to say about it, given the amount of money that they have put behind them,” he said, adding that it would not be in the interest of Microsoft “to sit passively”.

The Information first reported the news and said OpenAI will have a nine-person board.

The three initial directors of the new board – chairman Bret Taylor, former treasury secretary Larry Summers, and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo – are expected to be confirmed as soon as this week, the report said.

Mr D’Angelo would be the only remaining director from the old six-person board that fired Mr Altman.

Microsoft, which has invested more than US$10 billion (S$13.3 billion) in OpenAI, is one of the biggest backers of the company that operates ChatGPT, its viral generative AI chatbot.

Its CEO Satya Nadella had earlier told CNBC that the governance at the ChatGPT maker needed to change, no matter where Mr Altman ended up.

In response to a question on the OpenAI board, a Microsoft spokesman said: “We will wait until the board officially says something.”

OpenAI and Thrive did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Khosla declined to comment. REUTERS