Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is open to both options when it comes to Open AI employees - whether they choose to stay put or join Microsoft. "At this point, I only care about just making sure that we continue to innovate, but I am open to both options," Nadella told CNBC in an exclusive interaction.

Nadella finds himself at the centre of a dramatic corporate overhaul where Open AI CEO Sam Altman was fired by its board over the weekend, only to begin negotiations to bring him back soon after.

But before talks could progress, Nadella, CEO of the software giant, that has invested $13 billion in Open AI, announced that Altman will be joining Microsoft and will lead the in-house AI lab.

Nearly all Open AI employees have threatened to quit unless the board stepped down with both Microsoft and Salesforce putting out offers to poach the disgruntled employees.

"Microsoft has all the capability to do it (innovate) on its own, but we exclusively chose to partner wit Open AI and we want to continue doing that," Nadella said, adding that he and Microsoft remain committed to that Open AI partnership as well as the ousted Open AI CEO Altman.

The Microsoft CEO further mentioned that he wants to give both Sam Altman and Open AI Co-Founder Greg Brockman "a fantastic home at Microsoft, if they are not going to be at Open AI."

Nadella also added that Microsoft has all the technology and capability to keep innovating on the products up and down the stack. "What we are not going to do, is stop innovating," he said.

Shares of Microsoft ended over 2% higher on Monday at a record high of $377.44. The stock has gained nearly 60% so far in 2023. This is Microsoft's best annual return so far since 1999.

(Edited by : Amrita)

First Published:Nov 21, 2023 9:37 AM IST