Satya Nadella's Move To Hire Sam Altman Wins Universal Praise And Some 'Revenge Of Clippy' Humor

Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella might have just made the hiring of his lifetime by scooping up OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and former president Greg Brockman.

This has sparked universal praise and awe for the Microsoft chief, and some users have also posted hilarious memes.

What Happened: Nadella's quick decision to scoop up Altman, Brockman, and their former OpenAI colleagues to lead a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft is widely regarded as a masterstroke.

See Also: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman To Lead A New Advanced AI Research Team At Microsoft

Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box Inc. BOX, who has been vocal about his support for Altman since the news of his firing was made public, praised Nadella.

"Incredible execution by Satya in one of the most dynamic situations in tech history," he said.

Nadella also won praise for being nimble and responding to new developments

Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and a former partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz praised Nadella for thinking like a startup CEO.

"Satya wins. Reflexes of a startup CEO. Resources of a trillion-dollar company. Pulls this together in 48 hours from a cold start. Gets it signed and over the line, before markets open," he said.

Elon Musk, founder of xAI and also a fellow co-founder of OpenAI, couldn't resist joining in on the fun, either. He posted a cheeky response to Nadella's post, saying, "Now they will have to use Teams!"

The context is that Altman and Brockman were fired over a Google Meet call. This is despite Microsoft owning a 49% stake in OpenAI and also being its single largest investor.

Musk also sparked a stream of "Revenge of Clippy" memes.

Ross Nordeen, Musk's colleague at xAI, also joined in on the Clippy memes.

Other users said Nadella's decision gives them Don Corleone's vibes from the iconic film The Godfather.

Others compared Nadella's decision to something that Damian Lewis' character, Bobby Axelrod, would pull off in the TV drama Billions.

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