Technology

It was most likely a pre-planned move (copying a comment I made on Monday):

1. Sam wants to push for more & quicker profit with MS and VC backing, but board resists, constant conflicts
2. Sam aligns with MS, hatch a plan on how to gut OpenAI for its know-how, ppl, and tech, leaving the non-profit part bleeding out in the gutter
3. Sam & MS set a trap: Sam crosses some red lines, maybe taking commercial decisions without board approval. Potentially there was also some whispering in key ears (e.g, Ilya) by seemingly helpful advisors/VCs to push & pull at the same time on both sides
4. Board has enough after Sam doesn’t back down, fires him & other co-founder guy
5. MS and VCs go full attack to discredit board. After some info gathering, they realize they have been utterly fucked
6. Some chaos, quick decision of appointing/replacing ppl, trying to manage the fire, even talking to Sam (btw this might have been a fallback option for MS, that the board reinstates him with more control and guardrails, weakening the power of the non-profit)
7. Sam joins MS, masks are off
8. Employees on the sinking ship revolt, even Ilya realizes he was manipulated/fucked
9. OpenAI dead, key ppl join MS, tech and rest of the company bought for scraps. Non-profit part dead. Capitalist victory

Source: subjective interpretation/deduction based on the available info and my experience working as a management consultant for 10 years (dealing with lot of exec politics, though nothing this serious)

Yes, but at the cost of freaking out Microsoft's customers who woke up Saturday wondering if the AI they use in their apps or the Copilot they've come to rely on in their work is going to still be there on Monday. Also, Microsoft's stock nose dived on Friday because the OpenAI board didn't have the foresight to fuck up after markets closed. I'm the meantime, Anthropic has been fielding calls from OpenAI/Microsoft customers like Snap looking to switch to get some stability, so much so that Amazon Web Services has set up a whole team to help Anthropic manage the crush of interest.

So yeah, maybe Microsoft comes out of this having acquires OpenAI for free. But not before shaking customer and investor confidence by being partnered with and betting the future of your company on a startup that it turns out was being run by impulsive teenagers. I highly doubt Microsoft made this move, but they are definitely making lemonade out of the lemons the self aggrandizing EA board threw at them.

New CEO is related to Amazon, the plot thickens