Microsoft scoops up OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Greg Brockman

I don’t think I need to tell you, dear Daily Crunchers, which company dominated the news cycle, so let’s dig into today’s top stories.

In the wee hours of the morning, Kyle wrote that OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman doesn’t have plans to go back to OpenAI. And company employees, almost all of them, threatened to quit if he wasn’t reappointed CEO. We’ll see if employees make good on that threat. In the interim, Emmett Shear was named CEO of the company. Ingrid looks at who Shear is, aside from being the former Twitch CEO, and what he will be tasked with. Oh, and his spicy social history.

In case you need it, Kyle put together a timeline of Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI — and the fallout.

Meanwhile, Altman already has other plans. Both he and the other OpenAI co-founder, Greg Brockman, were hired over at Microsoft. Manish writes that the pair will lead what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls a “new advanced AI research team.” And Kyle notes that OpenAI’s board is no match for investors’ wrath.

Speaking of Microsoft, Sarah reports that Microsoft’s stock was already seeing a boost this morning after the news. And Darrell explains why Microsoft is the only real winner in the OpenAI debacle.

Over on TC+, Alex discusses effective accelerationism, while Tim writes that the crisis at OpenAI could serve up the next generation of AI startups.

TechCrunch Early Stage 2024

It’s Cyber Monday all week for TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 passes. On April 25 in Boston, expert-led, hands-on sessions give new and aspiring founders help, not hype. Now through November 28 at 11:59 p.m. PT, buy a founder or investor pass for just $99!

Read More

Discover solutions that improve employee collaboration

Sponsored by T-Mobile for Business

In today’s business landscape, managing a hybrid workforce poses a unique set of challenges. Join us as we discuss how our solutions provide secure connectivity, enable real-time collaboration, and streamline workflows.

Watch Now

More top reads

Look what’s in private beta: Open source Notion alternative AppFlowy gets big-name backers and lands on the cloud. Check it out.

Making a match: Tinder redesigns its profile pages with prompts, info tags and quizzes. Wait until you see what happens when you’re matched.

Christmas in March?: Sorry, Apple’s Vision Pro headset is not going to be available in time to go under your tree. Instead, look for it in March 2024.

New growth funding here: Emerging fund manager Shalin Mehta launches SEVA, a growth equity fund, with $85 million. Learn what Mehta will invest in.

Growth, growth, growth: LucidLink, which grew over 5x in the past two years, lands $75 million for its on-demand file streaming tech. Gotta love those market conditions.

MOVEit strikes again: Hackers accessed personal health data of over 1 million Welltok patients. Read more.

Bye-bye, advertisers: Some analysts believe that the advertiser exodus over at X is expected to deeply impact the social media giant’s ad revenue. Which means new sources of revenue will surely pop up.

Ukraine makes changes: The Ukraine government fires two of its top cybersecurity officials. Get the scoop.

Hacked in the stacks: The British Library confirms data was stolen in a ransomware attack. A tech outage is still going on.

Everyone was on X: Amid all of the OpenAI drama taking place on X, we take you through how Instagram Threads missed a moment to shine. Read more.

For those with deep pockets: With Functional Source License, Sentry wants to grant developers freedom “without harmful free-riding.” One critic has thoughts.

Weekend warriors you may have missed:

Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt resigns

With Amo, the founder of Zenly wants to make social apps social again

SpaceX launches Starship for the second time, going farther than ever before

Deal Dive: An AI application that isn’t just marginally better (TC+)

• Staff Software Engineer at Slang.ai (New York, NY, USA)
• Cloud & IT Security Engineer at AAOS (Rosemont, Illinois, USA)
• VP Revenue at Duel (Toronto, ON, Canada)
• Chief Scientist & Co-Founder - Data Analytics & AI at Susterra (New York, NY, USA)
• Donor Database Administrator at Community Environmental Council (CEC) (Santa Barbara, CA, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.