Davos 2024: Microsoft CEO ‘comfortable’ with OpenAI non-profit board structure despite Altman ousting
- Satya Nadella, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos, says he has ‘no issues with any structure’ at OpenAI
- The fact that Microsoft does not fully own OpenAI distinguished their deal in a pro-competitive way, according to Nadella
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday said he had no issue with partner OpenAI’s governance structure, two months after the start-up’s non-profit board temporarily ousted its chief executive without regard to investors’ interests.
“I’m comfortable. I have no issues with any structure,” Nadella said at a Bloomberg News event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.
“I expect us to make a lot of progress on that in the coming months,” OpenAI CEO Altman said at a later Bloomberg event in Davos. “And then after that, the new board will take a look at the governance structure.”
“We’ll go look at it from all angles,” he said.
Microsoft has now secured a non-voting observer position on the OpenAI board.
Competition authorities in Europe, Britain and reportedly the United States have started looking closely at the Microsoft-OpenAI relationship. Their agreement guarantees the Windows maker large chunks of the start-up’s profits depending on certain conditions, a person briefed on the terms has said.
According to Nadella, the fact that Microsoft does not fully own OpenAI distinguished their deal in a pro-competitive way.
“Partnerships is one avenue of, in fact, having competition,” he said.
Microsoft’s investments in computing power and years-old bet on OpenAI before its ChatGPT fame, Nadella said, were a “highly risky bet” and “not all conventional wisdom”.
