After Sam Altman got booted as CEO of OpenAI, 95% of the OpenAI employees threatened to follow him out the door.
👉 Background: OpenAI is the company behind the AI-chatbot leader, ChatGPT. OpenAI was first created as a non-profit research organisation back in 2015. But in 2019, it created a for-profit subsidiary, where Microsoft tipped in $1 billion... and then another $10 billion in 2023.
👉 What happened: Late last week, the Open AI CEO, Sam Altman, was asked to 'catch up' with a board member. Next minute, he was booted as CEO for 'poor communication' with the board. And the minute after that, the other co-founder Greg Brockman also resigned.
👉 What else: The next day, 95% of the OpenAI employees threatened to follow Sam Altman out the door. Now, Altman and Brockman have landed swanky new roles at Microsoft—the company that owns a big chunk of OpenAI.
💡In successful companies, the CEO doesn’t just drive the strategic vision, they also become the spiritual leader. So when a visionary CEO is booted, it can have a severe impact on the whole business.
💡Only last month, there were talks of a $86 billion USD valuation OpenAI in secondary share sales. But after Altman's firing, that valuation looks to be in jeopardy.
💡And this ain't the first tech company to fire its visionary CEO.. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple in 1985? But 11 years later, he was back in the fold and turning Apple around.
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