There's now an interim CEO, and it seems Sam has been fired by the board.

UPDATE from Greg Brockman: "Last night, Sam got a text from Ilya asking to talk at noon Friday. Sam joined a Google Meet and the whole board, except Greg, was there. Ilya told Sam he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon.

At 12:19pm, Greg got a text from Ilya asking for a quick call. At 12:23pm, Ilya sent a Google Meet link. Greg was told that he was being removed from the board (but was vital to the company and would retain his role) and that Sam had been fired. Around the same time, OpenAI published a blog post."

Seems like Ilya, one of the founders, had done a hostile takeover of the company convincing the board to oust Sam and Greg (also two founders). There will be backlash. A ton of early members of the team have already submitted their resignations. This could potentially be stemming from a deeper rift between the Effective Altruism and Effective Acceleration philosophy camps. More details to come.

Funny enough, Sam Altman himself wrote about board control on his blog ironically saying: "It’s a good idea to keep enough control so that investors can’t fire you". He also revised this essay by Paul Graham.

https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition