Did Microsoft Just Acquire a $90B Company for $0? 🤝

Microsoft may have just essentially acquired OpenAI for…checks notes…$0??

The tech world was rocked on Friday when OpenAI (makers of ChatGPT), or more accurately the Board of Directors at OpenAI, announced they had fired CEO Sam Altman immediately and CTO Mira Murati would act as interim CEO of the $90 Billion dollar AI enterprise.

In a Blog Post by OpenAI, they cited that Sam was not “consistently candid about his communication”, ultimately leading to their decision.

In the hours that followed, it seemed all of Twitter was trying to figure out what went wrong. From sexual abuse allegations (this turned out to be false) to fully fledged AGI (artificial general intelligence), the theories were diverse and plentiful.

As we ventured into the weekend, Sam started to tweet, OpenAI employees were talking online and the story was changing on an hourly basis. Microsoft got involved and it seemed as though support for Sam and the team was through the roof.

As of Tuesday morning, the details are still unclear, but here’s what we know so far, starting with the initial announcement by OpenAI.

📅 Friday November 17, 2023: A Shocking Start

• OpenAI's board says a big "nope" to CEO Sam Altman and fires him out-of-the-blue, citing lack of transparency.

• Sam Altman then takes to Twitter a few hours later, sharing his heartfelt thoughts about his journey at OpenAI.

📅 Saturday November 18, 2023: The Plot Thickens

• Greg Brockman, OpenAI's now-former president, steps down in a show of support for Altman and goes public with his decision.

• Later, Altman's on Twitter again, musing over the overwhelming support he's received.

• Reports are coming out that the board may have “pulled the plug” due to safety concerns that they had developed AGI and Altman didn’t spill the beans.

• At this point all of tech is starting to think the board made a huge mistake and pressed the panic button prematurely.

📅 Sunday November 19, 2023: The Revolt Brews

In a bold move, over 700 OpenAI employees (most of the team) pen an open letter, threatening to walk out if Altman and Brockman aren't brought back.

🙏 Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, heads to Twitter to express his regrets over the unfolding saga (Ilya original fired Sam over Google Meet on behalf of the board). It later comes out he has also signed the open letter in support of Sam & Brockman.

Sam posts a selfie holding a guest pass to OpenAI offices captioned “first and last time I ever wear one of these”, a smirk way to make light of the tense situation.

📅 Monday November 20, 2023: Microsoft Enters the Chat

• Satya Nadella, the big boss at Microsoft, announces Altman and Brockman are joining their team to head a new AI research unit. 

• The OpenAI board ends up appointing Emmett Shear as OpenAI's interim CEO after some intense HQ discussions.

As of Monday night, it’s reported that while these offers from $MSFT are very real, they have NOT closed and this is very much a fluid and changing situation.

Okay, so how did Microsoft essentially acquire OpenAI for $0?

The term for this maneuver is “acquihire”, and by scooping up the CEO, co-founder, President and over 700 of OpenAI’s employee’s, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella just made one of the most impressive business moves of all time… all before the markets opened on Monday morning.

It’s estimated that for Microsoft to build and train a GPT-4 level product, like that of OpenAI, it would take ~9 months.

Microsoft may have just skyrocketed to the top of the AI race in one weekend, and the markets might agree.

Shares of the tech giant rose 2.1% to an all-time high close of $377.44 on Monday.

🤑 $MSFT 🤑

Colton, Stock Monster

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