Reid Hoffman is leaving the Microsoft board to go into “founder mode” with startup Manus

After a decade of huge profits on Microsoft’s board, Reid Hoffman is stepping down The company announced Thursday. Hoffman joined the board of directors after Microsoft bought his company LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016.

Hoffman was on Microsoft’s board of directors when it invested its first $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019. Hoffman was one of the original investors in OpenAI and served on the model maker’s board of directors until his resignation in 2023. Quoted from Too many potential conflicts of interest to keep going. He was also on Microsoft’s board of directors when the tech giant entered into one of these non-acquisitions, Purchase deals worth $650 million Through the artificial intelligence startup Inflection AI. Microsoft hired Inflection co-founder Mustafa Soliman through that deal.

While speaking with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Hoffman said on a recent episode of the Possible podcast that he’s ready to go into “founder mode” with his latest AI startup. hand. Manus is a drug discovery company It raised more than $50 million Through a A couple of seed rounds last year. Hoffman is an investor, as is General Catalyst.

Hoffman is cited as Manus’ co-founder and chairman, not CEO. That job belongs to Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, a physician, biologist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the 2011 book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

However, Hoffman said he is excited to give Manos more attention.

“One of the things I’ve realized over the last month is that we’re seeing such progress with Manus. I need to get back into founder mode,” he said. He believes the startup is making progress On “Move 37” AIHe added: That is, artificial intelligence that replaces human creativity in chemistry, especially in combating various cancers.