Just after 2am Pacific Time on Monday morning, several OpenAI staffers, including its chief technology officer Mira Murati, posted in unison on X "OpenAI is nothing without its people." Sam Altman, who was dramatically removed as the company's chief executive on Friday, reposted many of them. By then, Altman already had a new job. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, a major investor and partner of OpenAI, announced late on Sunday night that Altman and his cofounder Greg Brockman would be joining the tech giant to head a new "advanced AI research team." Nadella's statement seemed to suggest that others from the startup would be joining Microsoft.

OpenAI's board of directors announced Friday it had fired CEO Sam Altman. By Monday morning, he had joined Microsoft "to lead a new advanced AI research team," according to the company. Altman cofounded OpenAI with Elon Musk in 2015 as a nonprofit and served as the CEO for the for-profit arm since 2019. He was originally fired from OpenAI over "a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board," according to an internal staff memo. Several key members also resigned, including co-founder Greg Brockman (who will now also join Microsoft) along with a few senior researchers.

Amazon.com is launching a program to train millions of workers in artificial-intelligence skills as the tech giant seeks to gain an edge in a pitched battle for talent with Microsoft, Google and other companies. Named "AI Ready," Amazon's new program aims to train at least two million people by 2025 on basic to advanced AI skills, including how to make use of the generative AI technology that has powered language-based models like ChatGPT. Amazon aims to fill a gap in AI talent as it has sought to generate interest in its generative AI efforts after falling behind rivals. In launching its program, Amazon is adding to a broader effort by the corporate world to get workers in various fields trained in AI.

On 17 November, OpenAI's board of directors unexpectedly fired the company's CEO Sam Altman. The board cryptically announced that Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities". This led to a wave of rumours about the reason for the decision. Within hours, Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, was also removed from the board and three senior researchers – Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Madry and Szymon Sidor – also quit. Brockman later resigned from the company.

There is a lot riding on the earnings report this week from Nvidia, both for the company's ebullient investors and the entire stock market. Nvidia has been the big winner of the bet that artificial intelligence is the next big thing in tech, the so-called AI trade that surged in popularity after OpenAI's release of its ChatGPT app. The chip maker's shares have more than tripled this year, contributing to a sizable portion of the S&P 500's 18% rise.

Microsoft Corp. said that Sam Altman will lead the software developer's new in-house artificial intelligence team after the OpenAI co-founder was ousted from his startup last week, a bid to shore up Microsoft's AI plans and reassure investors. Greg Brockman, an OpenAI board member and co-founder who also left the company last week, will join Altman and Microsoft will "move quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success," the Redmond, Washington-based company's Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a post on LinkedIn early on Monday. In another post on X, formerly Twitter, Nadella said Altman will serve as CEO of the new in-house group. I'm super excited to have you join as CEO of this new group, Sam, setting a new pace for innovation. We've learned a lot over the years about how to give founders and innovators space to build independent identities and cultures within Microsoft, including GitHub, Mojang Studios,… The move, at midnight local time on Sunday, was the latest in a dramatic three days for Microsoft and OpenAI's relationship, a backup plan for Nadella after his efforts to restore Altman and Brockman to OpenAI were thwarted. The OpenAI board named former Twitch chief Emmett Shear as CEO.

In another twist on the OpenAI saga that raged over the weekend, Microsoft has swooped in and hired Sam Altman and Greg Brockman just after OpenAI confirmed Altman won't be returning, CEO Satya Nadella announced in a post on X. The pair, along with colleagues are joining Microsoft "to lead a new advanced AI research team." Nadella added that Microsoft "remain[s] committed to our partnership with OpenAI," but the move looks a giant hedge on that bet. It also means the much of OpenAI's talent may be moving to Microsoft, which may stall progress on the widely-used ChatGPT product. We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners.

In another twist on the OpenAI saga that raged over the weekend, Microsoft has swooped in and hired Sam Altman and Greg Brockman just after OpenAI confirmed Altman won't be returning, CEO Satya Nadella announced in a post on X. The pair, along with colleagues are joining Microsoft "to lead a new advanced AI research team." Nadella added that Microsoft "remain[s] committed to our partnership with OpenAI," but the move looks a giant hedge on that bet. It also means the much of OpenAI's talent may be moving to Microsoft, which may stall progress on the widely-used ChatGPT product. We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners.

Reports this weekend suggested his sacking had angered current and former employees who were worried it might affect an upcoming $86bn (£69bn) share sale. There was also believed to be unrest within OpenAI's major investors - which include Microsoft.

OpenAI's board hired former Twitch chief Emmett Shear as chief executive officer, defying calls from investors to reinstate the ousted Sam Altman, according to people familiar with the matter. Shear stepped down as CEO of Amazon's game-streaming site Twitch earlier this year. He won over directors because he appeared to recognize the existential threats that AI presented, one of the people said. A computer scientist who spent more than a decade building Twitch into one of the world's most successful video platforms, Shear is regarded as having the heft to lead a large engineering group, the person added. Like some members of OpenAI's board, Shear has ties to the AI-skeptical effective altruism movement, which sees risks posed by advanced AI.