Yeah, but OpenAI was Microsoft’s ace the hole. Imagine if Nadella sat on his hands and waited while OpenAI burned down. In two weeks the narrative shifts from “Microsoft locked down the best AI people in the business” to “Nadella burned $10B for nothing”.

You don’t have to do a ton of diligence to know you want to keep the people you bet the farm on. If it turns out that Sam is actually a massive liability, Nadella will deal with that after this crisis passes.