November 17, 2023: OpenAI's board fires Sam Altman via Zoom, sparking the most dramatic coup in Silicon Valley history. Over five days during Thanksgiving week, 95% of employees threaten to quit, Microsoft offers to hire them all, and the board's idealistic attempt to slow AI development spectacularly backfires. From Ilya Sutskever's tearful betrayal and instant regret to Sam's chess master response that turned termination into triumph, Marcus Reid reveals how a nine-minute video call nearly destroyed a $90 billion company. Two years later, Sam rules an AI empire worth $157 billion while his would-be usurpers are footnotes. In tech, nice coups finish last.
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