Sam Altman's argument with the OpenAI team reveals a 'secret' WhatsApp group involving over 100 CEOs, says a report.

The sacking of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI caused a stir in the tech industry, with businesspeople wanting to know what had happened between the OpenAI board and Altman. Amid all the buzz around the high-profile firing, a secret WhatsApp group with more than 100 Silicon Valley CEOs was revealed. According to the New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Dropbox's Drew Houston are members of this group.

The first text on the WhatsApp group when Sam Altman was let go was "Sam is out." Then the top Microsoft leaders, like CEO Satya Nadella and CTO Kevin Scott, had a big discussion about it. Microsoft had put in about $13 billion in OpenAI, and Satya Nadella only found out about Sam's firing at the last minute, since he had faith in Sam and would've tried to stop it. Right after the news came out, the WhatsApp group was full of CEOs who were eager to find out what had happened to Sam Altman.

Right after the news came out, the WhatsApp group was full of CEOs who were eager to find out what had happened to Sam Altman.

‘Not candid in communications’

Kevin Scott gave Mira Murati, the CTO of OpenAI, a call, who had been asked to fill in as the interim CEO for OpenAI. She didn't tell him much, so he went to CEO Satya Nadella with the information. Not long after, the OpenAI board released a statement saying that Sam Altman hadn't been completely upfront with them. Sam Altman commented on Trevor Noah's podcast after being reinstated as the OpenAI CEO, saying that it felt really unfair and was very painful for him personally.

Altman revealed that his phone nearly crashed when he got let go because he was flooded with messages. He said, "My phone was just jam-packed with notifications, and iMessage had a meltdown. I was getting stuff late, and it all got marked as read, so I had no idea what was going on."