Sam Altman’s Exit From OpenAI Causes Price Drop for Worldcoin Token

OpenAI’s board of directors fired its very own co-founder and chief executive officer, Sam Altman, last Friday. As the news made headlines, Altman’s retina-scanning cryptocurrency, Worldcoin (WLD), dropped to $1.84.

In the official blog post published last Friday, OpenAI asserted that Altman’s departure followed “a deliberative review process by the board.” They concluded:

He [Sam Altman] was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.

According to Bloomberg, Altman was reportedly seeking billions of funds in the Middle East for his new AI-focused chip company before his OpenAI ouster on Friday. This venture is code-named “Tigris” and is intended to rival multinational AI and graphics-intensive applications company Nvidia.

Simultaneously, the Worldcoin token remarkably dropped on Saturday as news circulated about Altman’s removal. The token has been gradually decreasing from its $2.48 peak on Thursday—potentially caused by market volatility, but the news has exacerbated its decrease.

Although Worldcoin operates independently from OpenAI, its token’s value has rebounded right after reports circulated that a group of OpenAI executives and shareholders would reinstate Altman as the CEO of OpenAI. Nonetheless, WLD shed its price (-7.93%) again when the latest news stated that Altman would be officially replaced by Emmett Shear, co-founder and former CEO of Twitch.

Concurrently, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation Satya Nadella announced on X a few hours after the replacement was publicized:

And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.

Nadella underscores that they remain committed to their association with OpenAI and have confidence in its product roadmap.