According to sources on Monday, some investors in OpenAI, the developer of the popular AI chat robot ChatGPT, are seeking legal action against the company's board of directors. Previously, the OpenAI board of directors dismissed the company's CEO Sam Altman, which could lead to a large-scale loss of employees and business.
Sources say investors are collaborating with legal advisors to study options they can take in the future. It is currently unclear whether these investors will sue OpenAI.
Investors are concerned that their massive investment in OpenAI, the hottest startup in the AI industry, may suffer catastrophic losses due to the possibility of its collapse. OpenAI holds an important position in some of their investment portfolios.
The OpenAI board fired Ultraman last Friday on the grounds that they no longer have confidence in his ability to continue leading.
This move brought an "earthquake" to OpenAI, putting the company in a dilemma of internal and external troubles. On Monday local time, over 700 OpenAI employees signed a joint letter threatening to resign, demanding the resignation of the company's board of directors and restoring the positions of two co founders, Sam Ultraman and Greg Brockman, otherwise they would join Microsoft.
At the same time, OpenAI may face significant business loss. It is reported that over the weekend, over 100 OpenAI customers contacted OpenAI's competitor, Anthropic. According to insiders, someone has also contacted Cohere, another startup competitor of Google Cloud and OpenAI.
After Ultraman's dismissal, OpenAI investors pressed the board to revoke the recall decision. However, the OpenAI board ignored investors' calls and hired former Twitch CEO Emmett Hill as the company's CEO.
However, compared to venture capital investors who typically have board seats or voting rights, the uniqueness of this case is that OpenAI is controlled by its non-profit parent company, OpenAI Nonprofit, which was established to "benefit humanity, not OpenAI investors".
Minor Myers, a law professor at the University of Connecticut, said that company employees have greater influence than venture capital investors who help pay salaries.
From the perspective of equity structure, Microsoft holds 49% of OpenAI's shares, while other investors and employees collectively hold 49% of the shares. OpenAI's non-profit parent company holds 2% of the shares.