Inside Sam Altman’s OpenAI ouster: The untold India link in the November 2023 firing and reinstatement

On November 17, 2023, the world woke up to the news of the abrupt firing of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The move, by OpenAI's nonprofit board, sparked one of the most dramatic corporate upheavals in Silicon Valley history. 

Now, it has emerged that there is an India angle to Altman's firing, which was driven by concerns over his management style and lack of transparency leading to an intense power struggle that ultimately saw his reinstatement days later, says an upcoming book 'The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future' written by Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey.

According to excerpt from the book, the crisis had been building at OpenAI for months. Initially a nonprofit focused on AI safety, OpenAI had evolved into a for-profit powerhouse with Microsoft as a key partner. Despite Altman’s lack of equity in the company, he wielded immense power. The board, tasked with governing OpenAI for the benefit of "humanity," began losing trust in him due to perceived deception, poor corporate governance, and concerns over AI safety.

The India link

The tensions heightened after OpenAI released GPT-4, a powerful AI model, without full board approval. Board members, including Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, discovered that Altman had misrepresented safety approvals and withheld critical information. One major red flag was a secretive OpenAI Startup Fund, personally owned by Altman, which board members had not been informed about.

A pivotal moment came when Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest backer, launched an unapproved test of GPT-4 in India. This was the first time the model was deployed outside of OpenAI’s controlled environment. The independent board members were blindsided, learning about it informally rather than through official channels. This breach of governance, along with other deceptions, strengthened their resolve to act against Altman.

The firing & reinstatement

By late 2023, Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, who had once been Altman’s ally, turned against him. With input from CTO Mira Murati, Sutskever compiled a dossier outlining Altman’s pattern of misleading the board and internal conflicts. Convinced that Altman was destabilizing OpenAI, four board members, including Sutskever, voted to fire him on November 16. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s co-founder and a close ally of Altman, was also removed from the board.

The firing shocked employees, investors, and Microsoft. The board’s vague justification—that Altman was not “consistently candid”—led to speculation about internal politics. Murati, initially chosen as interim CEO, quickly sided with the employees against the board. By Monday, nearly all OpenAI employees had signed a letter threatening to quit unless Altman was reinstated. Even Sutskever, who had led the coup, reversed his stance and supported Altman’s return.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, caught off guard, stepped in, offering Altman and Brockman leadership roles at Microsoft if OpenAI didn’t reinstate them. Facing massive employee defection and pressure from investors, the board had no choice but to bring Altman back within days.