Nadella Slams OpenAI Board's "Amateur" Altman Firing

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella criticized OpenAI's board for their "amateur city" attempt to remove Sam Altman in 2023. Nadella testified on May 12th in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, calling the firing a governance failure. He defended Microsoft's $13 billion partnership with OpenAI as purely commercial, designed to boost cloud growth and AI integration. Nadella stated that Microsoft's interest was never about charity. He also expressed concern over the lack of transparency in the board's decision to fire Altman, finding the justification vague. What's interesting is that Nadella pointed out Musk never directly objected to the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership with him, despite having his contact information. This matters because AI governance and leadership structures are becoming a key theme in the tech sector.