OpenAI employees demand company board resign after Sam Altman sacking: 3 top cases where CEOs were fired by their own companies

OpenAI employees have called upon the company’s board members to resign after the American artificial intelligence company sacked the chief executive officer (CEO), Sam Altman.

As per reports, the staff members have sent a detailed letter to the board members where they questioned the board’s “competence” and accused them of “undermining” the work that the company has been doing in the field of AI.

The signatories of the letter included various senior staff members who stated that they will be resigning from the company if the board members didn’t give into the demands. Additionally, they also stated that Microsoft had agreed to give a job to any OpenAI employee who will be resigning.


Sam Altman is just one executive in a long line of top CEOs who were fired from their own companies. Here are 3 high-profile cases.

Steve Jobs (Apple)

Co-founder and CEO of Apple, Jobs was fired from the company by the organisation’s board members during an internal power struggle between Jobs and John Sculley who was the CEO of the company at the time. The board members took side of Sculley and fired Jobs who spent a significant 9 years outside the organisation that he founded at 21 years of age. Jobs was reported to describe that time as being “devastating.”

Jack Dorsey (Twitter)

Dorsey, who established Twitter in 2006 was fired from the organisation by the board members in 2008. The reason for the sacking was because of his attitude towards the work that the organisation was doing. Reportedly, Dorsey used to spend a major amount of his work time doing activities like stitching and painting.

Peter Chou (HTC)

Chou, who was the CEO of HTC, the Taiwanese consumer electronics company, was fired from his position in 2015 after he was at the helm for almost 10 years. It was reported that the reason for the sacking was because the company’s smartphones received significant negative feedback from the customers.

After Altman was sacked from OpenAI, he was hired by Microsoft to head their new “advanced AI research” division. In response to his new job, Altman posted on X (formerly Twitter) that his “mission” continues.

FAQs:

Q1. What is Microsoft?
Ans1. Microsoft is an American multinational technology corporation which was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Q2. What is Sam Altman’s net worth?
Ans2. As per latest reports, Sam Altman’s net worth is $500 million.