The most disappointing thing for me, given the OpenAI kerfluffle of the weekend, is that there are apparently no adults in the room at OpenAI. The soap opera that played out over the weekend, and is still playing out, shows that the board and executive leadership had no idea what they were doing. Microsoft will likely absorb quite a bit of talent over the next few weeks, regardless of any actions taken by what leadership remains at OpenAI. It wouldn’t surprise me to see OpenAI get shut down within a year, without hope of aquisition, due to the superior position Microsoft finds itself in.
The real question is can Microsoft can become a dominant player in AI development, or if they will suffer the same fate as Google, due to the nature of how slow big companies move. Granted, if OpenAI was getting anywhere close to AGI slow movement of progress within Microsoft would be a feature, not a bug.