OpenAI CEO firing scandal: Anthropic rejects OpenAI merger proposal
OpenAI CEO firing scandal: Anthropic rejects OpenAI merger proposal
OpenAI's board of directors fired Sam Altman on Friday for "communications violations," according to an internal memo. The CEO firing scandal has touched every major company in the tech sector and has gained traction.
On Monday, 500 of OpenAI's 770 employees threatened to resign if the company did not change its board of directors. OpenAI is controlled by a nonprofit parent company, OpenAI Nonprofit, which, according to OpenAI's website, was created for the benefit of "humanity, not OpenAI investors." As a result, employees have more influence on the board of directors than investors.
Altman and fellow OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman agreed to Microsoft's offer to lead its new artificial intelligence division, even though the Satya Nadella-led company has invested some $13 billion in OpenAI.
Amid such tumultuous news in the artificial intelligence industry, Microsoft shares hit a record high of $378.81 on Nov. 20. Nvidia shares also hit a record high of $499.60, continuing the overall trend.
OpenAI's board of directors has approached its AI rival, Anthropic, with a merger proposal. According to The Information, Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei received an offer for a possible merger but did not accept it.
Amodei was quick to reject the CEO's offer, explaining his commitment to Anthropic as the two-year-old startup is a competitor to OpenAI in research and the battle for the client market.
Anthropic is on a steady growth trajectory and recently secured $2 billion in funding from rivals Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Chatbot startup Claude competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT and is valued in the $20 billion to $30 billion range based on recent investments.
The news also affected the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Prior to its bankruptcy in November 2022, FTX invested a whopping $500 million in the startup Anthropic. The potential growth in the company's value has significantly increased the value of this investment.
These funds could help FTX achieve 100% recovery of depositors' assets in the exchange's bankruptcy proceedings. The timeline for FTX's bankruptcy restructuring group to sell its stake in Anthropic remains uncertain and may depend on Anthropic's public debut, unless some unique events trigger an earlier sale.
Read also: Crypto investment inflows surpass $1 billion.
