Reid Hoffman to leave Microsoft board
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman will not seek re-election to Microsoft’s board of directors this year, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.
Mr. Hoffman was a key figure in shaping Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI, but it also brought challenges. They included financial conflicts with his initial investments and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which lasted only a few months before the financier and sex offender was arrested a second time.
In a podcast interview with Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, who was fired Friday morning, Mr. Hoffman called serving on the board “a tremendous honor and pleasure.”
Mr Hoffman, 58, said he was leaving the board because the start-up he co-founded had made remarkable progress in its efforts to use artificial intelligence to improve cancer treatment. “I should really go into founder mode now,” he said.
“You will certainly be missed on the Microsoft board,” Mr. Nadella said in the podcast.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Hoffman said he was traveling and could not comment further.
Microsoft’s filing thanked Mr. Hoffman for his service and said his decision “is not the result of any disagreement with management on any matter related to company operations, policies or procedures.” He said he would serve until the company’s annual meeting, which is usually in December, and declined to comment further.
Mr. Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board in 2017 after it bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. He was an early investor in OpenAI and helped solidify its relationship with Microsoft when the startup was looking for more funding to develop its AI. Mr. Hoffman joined OpenAI’s board in 2018, but resigned five years later.
Microsoft poured $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019, and Mr. Hoffman was there when OpenAI demonstrated its technology to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in a critical meeting that cemented Microsoft’s further investment and close partnership with the start-up.
In a 2024 lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, Elon Musk, who helped found OpenAI but eventually left the AI research lab, accused Mr. Hoffman and another Microsoft executive of violating antitrust laws because of their involvement in both companies.
Mr Musk lost the case after it went to trial this spring, but vowed to appeal. The court did not hear antitrust claims during the trial, instead focusing on claims against Microsoft, OpenAI, and the two founders of OpenAI: Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
Mr. Hoffman was also a co-founder and investor in Inflection AI, another AI start-up. He was part of Microsoft’s vetting process when the company paid more than $650 million to license Inflection technology two years ago, hiring much of its staff and becoming Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, a top Microsoft executive.
(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft over claims of copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The companies deny any wrongdoing.)
Mr. Hoffman’s personal and political entanglements brought Microsoft’s typically low-profile boards into the public eye. He was and is a major Democratic donor defended his funding of E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse lawsuit against President Trump, which made him a right-wing target.
And after being introduced to Mr. Epstein by the head of MIT’s media lab, Mr. Hoffman stayed in touch with the financier for several years. He visited Mr. Epstein’s island, exchanged gifts, and at one point told Mr. Epstein that he had been think of ways to help with negative media attention online, The Times reported this year.
He met with Mr. Epstein via Skype and occasionally briefed him on his interactions with Mr. Gates through at least the end of 2018, the documents show. Mr Epstein was arrested in July 2019.
Mr. Hoffman told The Times this year that he wanted the Trump administration to release all files related to Mr. Epstein and prosecute those responsible for criminal behavior. “I welcome all the work being done by the press and people online to look into all the connections to Epstein to uncover those who committed the crimes,” he said.