Over 500 OpenAI Employees Threaten Mass Resignation After CEO’s Abrupt Firing

More than two-thirds of Ope­nAI’s 700 staffers say they will resign unless the board is replaced fol­low­ing Sam Alt­man’s sud­den exit. In a scathing memo, employ­ees declared the board “inca­pable” and “jeop­ar­dized” their impor­tant work.

Signed by over 500 work­ers, the memo demand­ed all board mem­bers resign and Alt­man be rein­stat­ed as CEO. Say­ing the board “lacked judge­ment,” employ­ees threat­ened to join Alt­man at his new role head­ing an AI unit at Microsoft.

Microsoft­’s com­mit­ment to find­ing jobs for dis­si­dent Ope­nAI employ­ees inten­si­fied the cri­sis. Dozens had already quit in protest over Alt­man’s fir­ing. New CEO Emmett Shear vowed to inves­ti­gate and reform lead­er­ship & communication.

Ope­nAI Chief Sci­en­tist Ilya Sutskev­er admit­ted regret­ting his “par­tic­i­pa­tion in the board­’s actions.” He said he “nev­er intend­ed to harm Ope­nAI” and wants to “reunite the company.”

The board­’s vague rea­sons for abrupt­ly oust­ing Alt­man sparked out­rage and dis­trust with­in Ope­nAI and beyond. With over two-thirds of its work­force now pos­si­bly defect­ing, the com­pa­ny’s future and mis­sion are shak­en to the core.