Microsoft has reportedly dropped its seat as an observer on OpenAI’s board of directors, less than eight months after it secured the post.
The Washington-based tech giant got its non-voting OpenAI board seat in November of 2023 after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was rehired following his short-lived forceful removal. Microsoft, which has invested more than $10 billion in the firm behind artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, was “blindsided” by Altman’s sudden firing last year.
“Over the past eight months we have witnessed significant progress from the newly formed board and are confident in the company’s direction,” Keith Dolliver, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, wrote in a letter to OpenAI Tuesday, according to The Financial Times and Axios.
“Given all of this we no longer believe our limited role as an observer is necessary,” Microsoft added in the letter as it announced its withdrawal of the seat “effective immediately.”
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Apple, which recently got its own observer seat on OpenAI’s board, has declined to accept the post, The Times reports. Phil Schiller, who leads Apple’s App Store, was expected to fill the seat later this year. The two firms have announced a partnership to integrate ChatGPT 4-o into the latest iPhone operating system (iOS 18), iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
OpenAI’s new approach to keeping its partners, including the tech giants and investors like Thrive Capital, in the loop will be regular meetings, according to the Times.
The changes to OpenAI’s board come as European and U.S. regulators have opened investigations into big tech companies over antitrust concerns.
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have reached a deal to investigate Microsoft, Nvidia, and Open AI over potentially anti-competitive behaviour in the AI space. The FTC is separately probing Microsoft over a deal to “acqui-hire” AI startup Inflection, as well as Amazon and Google’s separate investments into Anthropic.
The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority in December began gathering information to determine whether Microsoft and OpenAI’s collaboration threatens competition. And the European Commission is weighing its own possible antitrust investigation into the tie-up.
Representatives for Microsoft, OpenAI, and Apple did not immediately return requests for comment.
