'Damage control': Tech industry reacts to a chaotic weekend for OpenAI and Microsoft
The past few days have been chaotic for the AI industry, with technology experts weighing what this could mean for the nascent sector and some of its key players.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT which launched artificial intelligence into the mainstream late last year, said Friday that it was removing its CEO Sam Altman and making its technology chief Mira Murati interim chief executive in his place.

But before the weekend was even over, OpenAI appeared to change course, announcing that former Twitch chief Emmett Shear would take over from Altman instead, at least on a temporary basis.

Ilya Sutskever, one of the OpenAI board members who was involved in Altman's ousting, said he "deeply" regretted his role in the board's actions. Sutskever "never intended to harm OpenAI" and would work to "reunite the company," he said in a social media post Monday.

Meanwhile, Altman himself has already found a fresh role leading a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft, where he will be joined by former OpenAI Board Chair Greg Brockman and several other employees.

But Altman's move could simply be a case of "damage control" for Microsoft, according to Richard Windsor, founder of digital research company Radio Free Mobile. This is linked to Microsoft's immense investments in OpenAI, he said Monday on CNBC's "Street Signs Europe."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on the statement.

Microsoft began investing in OpenAI as early as 2019, initially with around $1 billion. That figure has ballooned since to an amount reported to be closer to $13 billion. Microsoft has also integrated OpenAI's technologies in products like search engine Bing and various other software.

"A large amount of that value is tied up in the founders and in the engineers that are inside the company," Windsor said.

Rishi Jaluria, managing director for software equity research at RBC Capital Markets, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Monday that Altman aligns with Microsoft's AI vision.

"The vison that Sam Altman has is kind of the vision Microsoft wants," including commercializing and "having responsible AI but not handcuffing AI," he said.

Meanwhile, other tech experts have been backing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's swift move to hire Altman in-house.