As Nadella spelled out. It doesn’t matter to him whether Altman is in Microsoft or OpenAI. It’s pretty much the same to Microsoft. OpenAI is well in Microsoft’s orbit. It’s defacto a Microsoft Company. Analyst have even referred to it as Microsoft’s AI research lab. Since that’s basically what it is. Which is what I heard is the reason that the old board staged the coup. Since they they thought that Altman was too close to Microsoft.

So to MS, it doesn’t matter if he’s in Microsoft’s external AI dev lab or an internal one. It probably helps that he’s at the external one with the regulators. With Microsoft’s history of being hassled due to anti-trust by various governments, it probably helps that it’s kept at OpenAI.

As for why Altman went back, it’s his company. He built it. It’s his baby. Why wouldn’t he go back? Why did Job go back to Apple?