Microsoft has experienced a new record opening on Wall Street after the arrival of co-founder and former number one of OpenAI, Sam Altman. The company’s stock rose 1.6% in early trading and is currently trading around 1%.
Altman, along with other colleagues, will lead a new artificial intelligence research team at Microsoft. In a social media post, CEO Satya Nadella announced the hiring of Altman and his colleague Greg Brockman for this project. The two co-founders of OpenAI, which is behind ChatGPT, have joined Microsoft to continue their work in AI.
Nadella added that the company remains committed to its partnership with OpenAI and is confident in the roadmap it has established for its product. Meanwhile, Emmett Shear, who was fired from OpenAI last Friday, has accepted a position as interim number one at the start-up and plans to launch an independent investigation within 30 days to shed light on Altman’s firing and the upheaval within the company.
These announcements come after a tumultuous weekend for OpenAI. On Friday, the board of directors suddenly announced Altman’s firing following “a deliberative review process by the board.” Despite this setback, Shear described his decision as “the opportunity of a lifetime” and said he accepted it because he believes that OpenAI is one of the most important companies in existence today.