SAN FRANCISCO – Mr Sam Altman has shown the world that he is not to be messed with.

Within four days of losing his job as chief executive of OpenAI in a surprise boardroom coup, the 38-year-old artificial intelligence (AI) phenom won back his position, aided by the support of 730 employees – out of the company’s 770-person workforce – who threatened to quit if the board did not bring back Mr Altman.

Anyone who has ever had a job knows that such overwhelming support for the boss is unusual.

“It’s a huge testament to the kind of CEO he is,” said Mr Alfred Lin, an investor at Sequoia Capital, a company that invested both in OpenAI and Mr Altman’s first start-up, Loopt. “There are always going to be detractors. But the fact that he got to around 95 per cent of employees signing the statement is pretty remarkable.”

In some ways, Mr Altman has come out of the episode stronger than ever, but the struggle over OpenAI is not quite over. Mr Altman did not get back his board seat and neither did a key ally, co-founder and former OpenAI president Greg Brockman, who was kicked off the board and quit his position in protest shortly after Mr Altman’s firing. One of the people who fired Mr Altman, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, remains.

Incoming board chair Bret Taylor said in a blog post on Nov 29 that the board plans to add more “qualified, diverse” members and “enhance” the governance structure of the company. Any substantial changes to the company or its board over the next few months could determine a lot about Mr Altman’s power within OpenAI over the long term.

Prior to his firing, OpenAI was considered a stable company, beating the biggest tech giants in the race to develop AI, with Mr Altman cast as its charismatic, savvy leader. He is still a widely respected figure who came out on top of an ill-advised coup, but he will likely continue to face questions about his rift with the board and his business dealings more broadly.

“We’re just now seeing the whole, complicated, Sam Altman,” said tech historian Margaret O’Mara. “Part of this is the reality-check phase of a Silicon Valley leader.”

To regain his job, Mr Altman agreed to an internal investigation, among other conditions. The abrupt nature of his firing and a statement from the board saying that he had not been “consistently candid” in his communications set up expectations for the emergence of a smoking gun.

Nothing like that has come out, though there have been revelations of tensions within OpenAI over his fund raising for an outside chip venture, including seeking funding in the Middle East, and a dispute with former board member Helen Toner over a research paper she had co-written that was critical of the company.

It was Mr Altman’s pattern of behaviour, rather than a single egregious action, that caused the board to lose trust in him, according to a person with direct knowledge of the board’s thinking.

In the wake of Mr Altman’s firing, former OpenAI employee Geoffrey Irving publicly accused Mr Altman of lying to him on several occasions when he worked at the company, but he did not give specifics. Mr Irving did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Altman’s past has received new scrutiny as well. Long-time mentor Paul Graham fired Mr Altman from his position as president of start-up incubator Y Combinator four years ago for putting his own interests ahead of the organisation, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

In a memo sent to staff the day after Mr Altman’s firing, OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said that the board’s decision “was not made in response to malfeasance” and that it was because of a “breakdown in communication between Sam and the board”. The company declined to comment further.

Immediately after being fired, Mr Altman resigned himself to moving on and potentially starting a new company, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing private matters.

Soon after, Mr Brockman and other key employees began resigning and voicing their support for their leader. Mr Altman reconsidered after members of the board called him asking if he would consider returning, the person said.

OpenAI’s main financial backer, Microsoft, gave employees leverage by offering to hire them if they followed through with their threats to quit.

In part, the employee reaction makes sense in simple financial terms. Many OpenAI employees hold equity in the start-up, which was recently valued at US$86 billion (S$114.9 billion) in a planned tender offer that would give staff a chance to cash out their shares. With Mr Altman no longer CEO, some investors were considering backing out of the deal, giving employees direct financial motivation to urge Mr Altman’s return.

But Mr Altman’s supporters say his reputation within the company is a result of the credibility he has built among employees for listening to their perspectives, particularly on matters relating to the company’s stated values. OpenAI’s mission is to create artificial general intelligence – AI systems that are generally smarter than human beings – in a way that benefits humanity.

Many employees take this mandate seriously. “We have a common mission to basically ‘Build God’ safely, and for the benefit of all humanity – and have a charismatic leader guiding us there,” said an OpenAI employee, who requested anonymity to protect professional relationships. “It’s really hard to not get wrapped up in that.”

Mr Altman has said he has no equity in OpenAI, establishing the perception that his interest in developing AI is his life’s cause.

“How many people do you know who would do that?” said Mr Vinod Khosla, an early OpenAI investor. “He’s very mission-focused... and he has proven that beyond a shadow of doubt.”

This is particularly notable, given the reputation that Mr Altman built in his years at Y Combinator as a savvy dealmaker and Silicon Valley superconnector.

In the AI frenzy that followed ChatGPT’s introduction in November 2022, Mr Altman has turned his charm on world leaders, regulators and the press. Business people often advocate for their industries on the public stage. But Mr Altman has cultivated an image as someone who not only articulates the benefits of AI development, but is also clear-eyed about its potential dangers. The OpenAI flap has added a wrinkle to that story, but he retains a sizeable fan base in Silicon Valley.

“Altman has been embodying a kind of idealism for a lot of people, even though he has always been a capitalist,” Dr O’Mara said. BLOOMBERG