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From Left: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Photos by GettyBehind OpenAI Meltdown, Valley Heavyweight Reid Hoffman Calmed Microsoft Nerves
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman has acted as an informal emissary between Microsoft and OpenAI through critical junctures in the two companies’ history. But there’s a limit to his influence.
Minutes after OpenAI’s board of directors announced it had fired CEO Sam Altman on Nov. 17, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman received a call from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
The board’s decision shocked executives at Microsoft, which had agreed to invest more than $13 billion in the fast-growing artificial intelligence startup. Nadella wanted to know if Hoffman, a Microsoft director who had previously served on OpenAI’s board, had any explanation beyond the board’s oblique statement that Altman had failed to be “consistently candid,” according to a person familiar with the exchange.