zlacker

From the outside none of this makes much sense. So the old board just disliked him enough to oust him but apparently didn’t have a good pulse on the company and overplayed their hand?

>>turndo+(OP)
It’s about money and power. Not AI safety or people disliking each other.

>>fruit2+k4
What money? None of them had equity

>>jychan+b6
Not having money while everyone becomes filthy rich is also a money motivator.

>>jychan+b6
They’ll all be filthy rich if they can keep doing this. Altman was already side-hussling to get funding for other AI companies.

Same with employees and their stock comp. Same with microsoft.

>>turndo+(OP)
As far as I can tell, Sam did something? to get fired by the board, who are meant to be driven by non-profit ideals instead of corporate profits (probably from Sam pushing profit over safety, but there's no real way to know). From that, basically the whole company threatened to quit and move to Microsoft, showing the board that their power is purely ornamental. To retain any sort of power or say over decision making whatsoever, the board made concessions and got Sam back.

Really it just shows the whole non-profit arm of the company was even more of a lie then it appeared.

>>jychan+b6
The had some equity after 2019.

Thrive was about to buy employee shares at a $86 bn valuation. The Information said that those units had 12x since 2021.

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/thrive-capital-to-le...

>>turndo+(OP)
They wanted a new CEO and didn't expect Sam to take 95% of the company with him when he left.

Sam also played his hand extremely well; he's likely learned from watching hundreds of founder blowups over the years. He never really seemed angry publicly as he gained support from all the staff including Ilya & Mira. I had little doubt Emmett Shear would also welcome Sam's return since they were both in the first YC batch together.

>>yosame+zb
Where is this blind trust for the board coming from? The board provided zero rationale for firing Sam.

>>fruit2+k4
There's no proof on either side. Just as likely to be ideological disputes from Helen and Ilya.

>>maxdoo+SK
They did give reasons they were just vague. Reading between the lines, it seems the board was implying that Sam was trying to manipulate the board members individually. Was it true? Who knows. And as an outside observer, who cares? This is a fight between rich people about who gets to be richer. AI is so much larger than one cultish startup.

>>nbanks+Wi
> They wanted a new CEO

If that were the case, would they not have presented the new CEO immediately for an “orderly transition”? As I understand it, Ms Murati tried to get Altman back, and when she pressured the board, they tried at least two other possible CEOs before settling on Mr Shear, who also threatened to leave if they could not give evidence of a legal reason for firing Altman. It smells like a personality conflict.