Kimberly White/Horacio Villalobos/Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images
- Emmett Shear served as OpenAI's interim CEO for 72 hours before Sam Altman returned.
- He and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky reportedly played a role in helping bring Altman back to OpenAI.
- Chesky, Altman, and Shear all know each other from the Silicon Valley startup circuit.
Silicon Valley tech execs are an unpredictable bunch. In good times, they challenge each other to cage fights and argue over the dangers of AI at birthday parties. But when times are tough, they band together to ensure everyone stays on the job train.
During Sam Altman's surprise ouster from OpenAI last month, Airbnb's CEO Brian Chesky, and Emmett Shear — who served as OpenAI's interim CEO for less that 72 hours — helped make way for Altman's return, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Chesky was one the first people Altman reached out to when he found out he had been fired from OpenAI. The two have been friends for over a decade, and Altman mentored Chesky as an advisor at startup accelerator, Y Combinator, according to The Information.
"So brutal," Altman texted Chesky minutes after he got the news on November 17, according to the Journal. When they spoke to each other that day, Chesky probed Altman with questions about why the board had fired him, according to The New York Times.
Chesky wasn't just asking questions out of sheer curiosity. When his other "mentor" Shear briefly took the helm of OpenAI two days later, the two "helped clear a path" for Altman's return, the Journal reported.
Shear and Altman also have a relationship that goes back to their days at Y Combinator. The two knew each other as alums of Y Combinator's first class, according to the AP. Shear was also a part-time partner at Y Combinator during some of Altman's tenure as president.
But beyond their familiarity on the startup circuit, it's clear that Shear believed that Altman was the right person for the job. And he seemed pretty skeptical of the board's decision to remove Altman.
When Shear became interim CEO on November 19, he said Altman's removal had been "handled very badly" and that he had "nothing but respect" for Altman in a post on X. He also outlined a plan for the ensuing 30 days that included hiring an independent investigator to "dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report."
Shear didn't get more than 72 hours in his post, so that report never saw the light of day. But he did say in a follow-up post on X that he was "glad to have been a part of the solution" when Altman was reinstated days later.
And from the looks of it, he may have been among a key group of negotiators who helped make way for Altman's return.