Sam Altman saga takes another twist with his return to OpenAI

Sam Altman is returning to OpenAI less than a week after he was ousted from the company he co-founded.

Now, as he's set to return, several board members who fired Altman are out; According to The New York Times, the only holdover will be Adam D’Angelo, the chief executive of the question-and-answer website Quora.

"I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together," Altman said in message late Tuesday on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Altman's return caps several days of drama in the tech world, starting with his sudden ouster by the OpenAI board on Nov. 17 for reasons that are still unclear. By Monday, he was set to join Redmond-based Microsoft, a multi-billion-dollar investor in OpenAI. Microsoft hired Altman and Greg Burkman, OpenAI's president who had resigned in solidarity, with the intention to form a new AI research team at Microsoft.

OpenAI's employees weren't happy with the move, though. In fact, an estimated 97% of employees signed a letter threatening to resign if Altman wasn't reinstated and calling for the board to resign.

As for Microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella reaffirmed the two companies' partnership moving forward.

"We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board," Nadella said in a statement. "We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance. Sam, Greg [Brockman], and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission."