Sam Altman is still pushing to return as OpenAI CEO

If you thought Sam Altman joining Microsoft was a done deal, think again.

While Microsoft made a massive announcement on Monday morning that Altman and Greg Brockman would lead a new advanced AI research unit, insiders say that move was merely a holding pattern to calm Wall Street before markets opened. Altman's real goal hasn't changed: he and Brockman want back in at OpenAI, provided the remaining board members who ousted them step down.

An office in full revolt

Right now, OpenAI's board is facing an unprecedented internal mutiny.

Over 700 of the company's roughly 770 employees have signed an open letter threatening to quit and follow Altman to Microsoft unless the board resigns and reinstates him. In a dramatic twist, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who originally orchestrated Altman's ouster, signed the letter and expressed deep regret for his actions.

Morale inside the San Francisco headquarters has completely cratered. Staffers refused to attend an emergency all-hands meeting called by newly appointed interim CEO Emmett Shear, reportedly flooding OpenAI's internal Slack with middle-finger emojis.

Meanwhile, Shear himself is reportedly in the dark. Sources indicate the former Twitch CEO has yet to see any formal documentation explaining why Altman was fired. He has warned that he will not stick around if the board cannot provide clear reasoning, and has pledged to hire an independent investigator to review the entire ordeal.

That leaves just three holdouts on the board: Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, Tasha McCauley, and Helen Toner. With Sutskever flipping, Altman only needs two of them to change their minds.

The scramble before Thanksgiving

High-stakes negotiations are now underway to resolve the chaos before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Major backers including Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, Tiger Global, and Sequoia Capital are aggressively pushing for Altman's return. Reports indicate D'Angelo and Altman are discussing several exit scenarios, including Altman returning to a transitional board alongside new additions like former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed the whirlwind during appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg TV. Nadella carefully kept all options open, stating that whether Altman returns to OpenAI or comes to Microsoft is ultimately up to OpenAI's team. However, he made one demand abundantly clear: OpenAI's governance must be overhauled immediately. Nadella emphasized that "surprises are bad" and Microsoft will ensure it is never left out of the loop again.

Why it matters

For developers and enterprises relying on OpenAI's models, this ongoing tug-of-war is a massive wake-up call. While engineers took to social media on Monday promising to keep the servers running, a company with over 90% of its workforce ready to walk out at any second is the definition of counterparty risk. Anyone solely reliant on OpenAI APIs right now should immediately start testing fallbacks.

For the broader industry, the crisis has exposed the fundamental flaws of OpenAI's hybrid non-profit structure. The board was designed to act as a moral check on dangerous AI development, yet in practice, it carried out an opaque boardroom coup without documenting their reasons or consulting major investors.

We think this entire episode proves that idealism cannot survive a collision with massive commercial scale. Altman's likely return, backed by overwhelming employee leverage and billions in venture capital, will almost certainly strip the non-profit board of its remaining power. In our view, OpenAI will emerge looking much more like a traditional, aggressive tech giant—and Microsoft will ensure it has a direct hand on the steering wheel.