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In November 2023, OpenAI fired its CEO Sam Altman out of nowhere. No warning. No leaks. Just gone. 4 days later? He was back. Microsoft stepped in. Employees revolted. It was the craziest 96 hours in Silicon Valley history. On November 17, OpenAI’s board (the small group that controls the company) said: “Sam Altman is no longer CEO.” No one knew this was coming. Not even Sam. They gave a strange reason: He wasn’t being “fully honest” with them. Sam was shocked. He found out just a few minutes before the news was made public. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s cofounder and president, was also surprised. He wasn’t part of the decision. Greg quit right after. Others started to quit too. At the time, the OpenAI board had just 4 voting members: Ilya Sutskever (Chief Scientist) Adam D’Angelo (runs Quora) Helen Toner (studies AI policy) Tasha McCauley (tech entrepreneur) They thought Sam was moving too fast with AI. The board wanted to slow down. They worried about safety. But many people at OpenAI thought Sam was doing a great job. They believed he was the heart of the company. So, the team started to fight back. Over 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signed a letter. It said: “Bring Sam back, or we quit.” Even Ilya, one of the board members who helped fire Sam, changed his mind. He said he was sorry and also wanted Sam back. Microsoft the biggest investor in OpenAI. They had put over $10 billion into the company. Their CEO, Satya Nadella, made a big move: He offered Sam and his whole team new jobs at Microsoft. Satya said: “If OpenAI won’t keep you, we will.” He promised to help Sam build a brand-new AI lab inside Microsoft. Now the board was in trouble. Everyone staff, investors, and even the public —was against them. The board had to act fast. They started talking to Sam again. On November 21, news came out that he might come back. And on November 22, it was official — Sam Altman was CEO again. Only 4 days had passed. The board didn’t stay the same though. 3 of the people who voted to fire Sam were removed. Only Adam D’Angelo stayed. New board members were brought in to help rebuild trust: – Bret Taylor (former co-CEO of Salesforce) – Larry Summers (former U.S. Treasury Secretary) Greg Brockman also came back. The employees stayed. The company survived. Microsoft didn’t lose anything. In fact, they became even closer to OpenAI. Some people said it was about safety. Others said it was about control. But in the end, the message was clear: Leaders matter. People matter. Trust matters. And even big tech companies can break or bounce back in just a few days.