Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, made a comment on Monday that Sam Altman could possibly return to OpenAI.
Following previous claims that Altman would be joining Microsoft's artificial intelligence innovation section.
Nadella was asked if Altman would in fact join Microsoft, and he said, he was open to both options.
Now, more than 770 staff of OpenAI have signed a letter threatening to resign in protest of the board's decision to dismiss CEO Sam Altman. And demanding for his return.
Sam Altman and his fellow OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman were removed from their positions at OpenAI on Friday, and new board members to be appointed.
OpenAI, which was launched in 2015 with investment from various tech billionaires, has emerged as the leader of a new generation of AI technology best recognized by the chatbot software ChatGPT in recent years.
Microsoft is one of the company's largest investors, having invested $13 billion in OpenAI. Following the news on Monday, Microsoft's stock touched an all-time high.