Sam Altman has agreed to return to lead OpenAI, overcoming an attempted boardroom coup that sent the company into chaos over the past several days. Former president Greg Brockman, who quit in protest of Altman’s firing, will return as well. The company while revealing the above on Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter) said “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board.”
The company added that the board will be chaired by Bret Taylor, a former co-CEO of Salesforce. Other members include Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
“We are collaborating to figure out the details,” it said.
Altman’s reinstatement provides a resolution to a crisis that pitted almost all of the company’s employees and investors against the four-person board.
“I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together,” Altman wrote on the social media site X in response to the announcement of his return.
One of OpenAI’s other big investors, Thrive Capital, called the return of Altman “the best outcome for the company, its employees, those who build on their technologies, and the world at large.”
“OpenAI has the potential to be one of the most consequential companies in the history of computing,” Thrive partner Kelly Sims said in a statement shared with The Verge. “Sam and Greg possess a profound commitment to the company’s integrity, and an unmatched ability to inspire and lead. We couldn’t be more excited for them to come back to the company they founded and helped build into what it is today.”
