Reid Hoffman is leaving Microsoft’s board to go ‘founder mode’ with startup Manus

After a very profitable decade on Microsoft s board, Reid Hoffman is stepping down, the company announced Thursday. Hoffman joined the board after Microsoft bought his company Linked In for $26.2 billion in 2016.

Hoffman was on Microsoft s board when it invested its first $1 billion into Open AI in 2019. Hoffman was one of Open AI s original investors and served on the model maker s board until he stepped down in 2023, citing too many potential conflicts of interest to continue. He was also on Microsoft s board when the tech giant entered into one of those non-acquisition, acqui-hire deals for $650 million with his AI startup Inflection AI. Microsoft hired Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman through that deal.

Hoffman said on a recent episode of his Possible podcast, while talking with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, that he s ready to go founder mode with his latest AI startup, Manus. Manus is a drug discovery company that raised over $50 million through a couple of seed rounds last year. Hoffman is an investor, as is General Catalyst.