Sam Altman will return as the boss of OpenAI just days after he was fired.

The company’s co-founder, 38, was removed from his position by the board on Friday, which led to many members of staff threatening to quit in support of their boss. Due to the high number of resignation threats, Sam was reinstated today.

In an X (formally Twitter) post, the businessman expressed his gratitude to his team, and his optimism for the company’s future.

He wrote: “I love openAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. When I decided to join msft [Microsoft] on Sunday evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. With the new board and with satya’s support, i’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with msft [Mircosoft].”

The initial decision to fire Sam was made by Adam D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, after they concluded that he was “not consistently candid in his communication with them, hindering its ability to to exercise its responsibilities.”

Then on Monday, Ilya apologised to Sam publicly on X, and called for the decision to be reversed.

He wrote: “I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”