- Altman himself was fired from OpenAI and then took a top job at Microsoft over the weekend.
- Investors, Wall Street analysts and industry insiders assessed this drama.
- Scroll down to see a summary of their reactions.
Within A stormy weekendOpenAI co-founder Sam Altman was fired from ChatGPT’s parent company and quickly accepted a job leading a new AI research team at Microsoft.
The dramatic turn of events has major implications for markets, as Microsoft is one of OpenAI’s largest investors, and excitement about artificial intelligence has been a key factor in this year’s gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100. OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Here’s how investors, analysts and insiders reacted to the news of the OpenAI fiasco. Their comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity:
1. Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst at Wedbush, c Europe CGTN
“It’s a disastrous situation because ultimately Altman is the face of artificial intelligence, the golden child — that’s why Microsoft and other companies invested.”
2. Jason Ware, CIO of Albion Financial Group, to CNBC
“The reality is that Microsoft is in a difficult situation. It has spent much more than $10 billion on investments in OpenAI. [Microsoft CEO Satya] Nadella says they are still committed to OpenAI. They still can’t handle OpenAI; at the same time they charge as if they were trying to bring it home. (Ware predicted a brain drain as other OpenAI employees follow Altman to Microsoft or join other rivals once he is no longer in charge).
3. Ben Laidler, eToro analyst, in this morning’s email
“Microsoft investors appear to have reacted positively to the news that recently fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has joined the juggernaut to head its new artificial intelligence division, with the stock price up 2.5%.
“OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 marked the beginning of perhaps the fastest adoption of consumer technology in history. But Friday’s shocking rejection of Altman shows it came with significant development issues.
“It also put tech giant Microsoft in a difficult position as the largest backer and 49% shareholder of OpenAI and the biggest beneficiary of its skyrocketing valuation to $86 billion.
“Microsoft opposed Altman’s firing and hopes he can add some stardust to their ‘in-house’ AI development, while the company also hopes that new OpenAI CEO Emmett Shear will stabilize the AI pioneer and its value.” investment”.
4. Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets, in an email this morning
“Microsoft shares are expected to rise more than 2% after the company decided to hire Sam Altman to lead its advanced artificial intelligence research team.
“The massive uproar over the weekend resulted in the co-founder of OpenAI being ousted as CEO, raising concerns that it would result in an exodus of OpenAI staff to create a new ChatGPT competitor.
“Nonetheless, Microsoft made the decision to protect their investment, and the decision to hire Altman helped minimize the risk of an OpenAI exodus while adding expertise to their massive AI operations.”
5. Linxi “Jim” Fan, senior artificial intelligence scientist at Nvidia, in: Post X
“Somehow during this epic breakdown, Satya steps in, wins everything, and wins gracefully. I’m blown away. OpenAI was undefeated until Friday.
“Now, within ~9 months, Microsoft will fully own its own GPT-4 processor, leverage its massive distribution power to launch the largest ever data flywheel, reap massive profits, and scale the most powerful intelligence in Azure – doing all this without any management whatsoever non-profit.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the course of humanity suddenly and fundamentally changed on 20/11/23. Not at all what the coup was intended to do? Right, Clippy?”
6. Jason Calacanis, venture capitalist and podcast host, in post X
“The entire poker table was overturned… chips, drinks, cards, players scattered everywhere – complete chaos. Now it’s everyone’s game. This implosion will be great for the industry… it continues!”
