Microsoft hires OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman, Greg Brockman after split

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Microsoft on Monday announced that OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman will join the company.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the move in a statement on social media after Altman and Brockman parted ways with OpenAI over the weekend.

"We're extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team," Nadella said.

Microsoft, which has invested $10 billion into OpenAI in long-term partnership, said it will stay the course in that relationship.

"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 continuing to support our customers and partners," Nadella said in the statement.

Nadella added that Microsoft will provide Altman and Brockman "with the resources needed for their success."

The OpenAI board said on Friday it has lost confidence in Altman after a "deliberate review process" where it believed he was "not consistently candid in his communications with the board." It did not elaborate.

Brockman and several other OpenAI team members left the company in protest of Altman's firing.

Brockman said Monday morning that the new Microsoft team was "going to build something new and it will be incredible." He said other OpenAI members Szymon Sidor, Jakub Pachocki and Aleksander Madry will be joining him and Altman at Microsoft.

Nadella said he believes the new team will set "a new pace" for innovation in the AI field.

"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, and LinkedIn, and I'm looking forward to having you do the same," he said on X.