7 ms·

The major investors whose money is on the line and who are funding the venture, Microsoft, Sequoia, and Khosla, were not given advanced warning or any input in

The major investors whose money is on the line and who are funding the venture, Microsoft, Sequoia, and Khosla, were not given advanced warning or any input in to how this would impact their investment. I would definitely say the board screwed up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/17/openai-investors-blindsided-by-sam-altmans-firing/?sh=11ad13f73fc9 https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/17/openai-in...

barfingclouds 3y ago
Non profit board therefore for profit investors have no say
itchy_spider44 3y ago
I'm surprised that none of these investors secured a board seat for themselves before handing over tens of billions. The board is closer to a friendship circle than a group of experienced business folks.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- kyle_grove 3y ago
  FOMO
- frontalier 3y ago
  > The board is closer to a friendship circle than a group of experienced business folks. Isn't this true for most of S.V.?
MVissers 3y ago
The board of the non-profit (one that fired Sam) has no fiduciary duty to those investors, I believe. Microsoft invested in the for-profit Openai, which is owned by the non-profit. The other ones I don't know. The board has no responsibility to Microsoft whatsoever regarding this. Sam Altman structured it this way himself. Not to say that the board didn't screw up.
- jnwatson 3y ago
  That Microsoft agreed to such a deal is negligence of the highest order.
  - cthalupa 3y ago
    It might have been the only deal on the table. Perhaps they thought the risk was worth it - good processes don't always lead to good outcomes. Perhaps they felt that the rights they gained to the GPT models was worth it even if they don't get direct influence over OpenAI. Between Bing, o365, etc. etc. etc. it's possibly they could recoup all of the value of their investment and more. At the very least it is a significant minimization of the downside.
  - xnx 3y ago
    We have no idea what the terms of the deal are. It's probably "up to" $20 billion.
  - vikramkr 3y ago
    They put out a statement saying they have what they need. I don't see how Microsoft loses here. Either they get altman back at openai and get rid of the ethics crowd and make bank, or they find his new startup without the move slow crowd and make bank. No matter what they win.
  - marcinzm 3y ago
    As I understand it, they got all the model details and most of their investment was actually cloud credits on Azure. So technically they can cancel those going forward if they want to and deal with whatever legal ramifications exist. All of GPT4 (and other models) for probably $1-2b may not actually be a bad deal for them even if that's all they get.
- mdekkers 3y ago
  You can do everything by the rules, and still do the wrong thing
  - 3y ago

barfingclouds 3y ago

Non profit board therefore for profit investors have no say

itchy_spider44 3y ago

I'm surprised that none of these investors secured a board seat for themselves before handing over tens of billions. The board is closer to a friendship circle than a group of experienced business folks.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
kyle_grove 3y ago
FOMO
frontalier 3y ago
> The board is closer to a friendship circle than a group of experienced business folks. Isn't this true for most of S.V.?

MVissers 3y ago

The board of the non-profit (one that fired Sam) has no fiduciary duty to those investors, I believe. Microsoft invested in the for-profit Openai, which is owned by the non-profit. The other ones I don't know. The board has no responsibility to Microsoft whatsoever regarding this. Sam Altman structured it this way himself. Not to say that the board didn't screw up.

jnwatson 3y ago
That Microsoft agreed to such a deal is negligence of the highest order.
- cthalupa 3y ago
  It might have been the only deal on the table. Perhaps they thought the risk was worth it - good processes don't always lead to good outcomes. Perhaps they felt that the rights they gained to the GPT models was worth it even if they don't get direct influence over OpenAI. Between Bing, o365, etc. etc. etc. it's possibly they could recoup all of the value of their investment and more. At the very least it is a significant minimization of the downside.
- xnx 3y ago
  We have no idea what the terms of the deal are. It's probably "up to" $20 billion.
- vikramkr 3y ago
  They put out a statement saying they have what they need. I don't see how Microsoft loses here. Either they get altman back at openai and get rid of the ethics crowd and make bank, or they find his new startup without the move slow crowd and make bank. No matter what they win.
- marcinzm 3y ago
  As I understand it, they got all the model details and most of their investment was actually cloud credits on Azure. So technically they can cancel those going forward if they want to and deal with whatever legal ramifications exist. All of GPT4 (and other models) for probably $1-2b may not actually be a bad deal for them even if that's all they get.
mdekkers 3y ago
You can do everything by the rules, and still do the wrong thing
- 3y ago