OpenAI investors are considering suing the company’s board after its sudden firing of CEO Sam Altman last week, according to sources familiar with the matter. The board’s firing of Altman sparked a wave of potential departures from the company as well.
Investors are reportedly working with legal advisers to study options on approaching the tech company’s recent decision. No official decision has been made if these investors will sue OpenAI’s board yet. The sources add that investors are worried that the hundreds of millions invested in OpenAI could suffer catastrophic losses as a result of what appears to be a potential collapse of the AI startup.
Wired reported that over 500 OpenAI employees signed a protest letter threatening to walk out after Altman’s firing as well. Since his firing, Sam Altman has joined Microsoft as one of the heads of a new advanced AI research team.
Microsoft owns 49% of the OpenAI company. Other investors and employees control 49%, with 2% owned by OpenAI’s nonprofit parent. OpenAI’s board of directors consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Helen Toner. More developments will come soon regarding the potential lawsuit.