NVIDIA and Salesforce Make Love Calls to OpenAI Employees
Corporate Clients Also Turn Eyes to Competitor Anthropic
OpenAI faced an internal and external crisis following the sudden dismissal of CEO Sam Altman by the OpenAI board. With more than 700 employees threatening to leave the company alongside Altman, major artificial intelligence (AI) companies have actively begun recruiting talent. As OpenAI employees started to leave and the company faced the risk of disintegration, OpenAI’s corporate clients flocked to its competitor, Anthropic.
Bloomberg reported on the 21st (local time) that the competitive landscape of the AI industry is rapidly reshaping following Altman’s ousting by the OpenAI board.
OpenAI’s competitors immediately launched talent recruitment efforts. AI semiconductor company Nvidia and enterprise software firm Salesforce publicly began recruiting OpenAI employees. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff posted on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on the 20th, just three days after Altman’s dismissal, saying, “(OpenAI employees) please send your resumes directly to my email address, 'ceo@salesforce.com'.” Nvidia’s AI researcher Jim Fan also posted on X with a photo of CEO Jensen Huang, stating, “Nvidia is currently hiring” and “We love everyone coming from OpenAI.” Meta’s Fundamental AI Research team also extended job offers to OpenAI employees and requested resumes.
With over 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees threatening mass resignation if Altman’s return fails, AI companies are seizing the opportunity to address the critical issue of talent shortage. However, since OpenAI employees are reportedly willing to join Microsoft (MS) alongside Altman, it remains uncertain whether competitors’ talent acquisition strategies will succeed.
OpenAI’s corporate clients have also begun seeking alternative AI providers. Anthropic, a competitor of OpenAI, reportedly received inquiries from more than 100 OpenAI client companies following the Altman dismissal scandal. Anthropic was founded by Dario Amodei and other former OpenAI employees who left by 2020. Recently, Anthropic unveiled the chatbot ‘Claude2,’ a challenger to ChatGPT, and is regarded as having technology comparable to OpenAI.
Facing crises both inside and outside, the OpenAI board attempted to explore a merger possibility with Anthropic, but Anthropic declined. This only led to criticism that the board was pushing the company into an even greater crisis.
Bloomberg stated, “AI companies are attempting to poach employees from OpenAI following (Altman’s) ousting. They are also receiving significant interest from major clients,” adding, “This movement shows the risk that competitors could pull ahead while OpenAI is mired in the boardroom drama.”
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