OK, I was part of those that thought that Altman did something wrong and the board was trying to do some damage control, but it actually seems that the board is simply out of their mind. This was _indeed_ another possibility, but seemed much less likely, given Altman's slightly megalomania-tainted personality.

I think the board just signed their own resignation, but didn't realize it yet. Microsoft didn't pay 10 billion dollars for nice RL benchmarks and a better H-index. They are after GPT-x's capabilities to infuse them across their entire portfolio. I predict they will find a way to align OpenAI back on their interest (i.e. $$$), and that probably means bringing back Altman, Brockman and other leading engineer at the expense of the board that fired them in the first place.

Of course, the board might refuse, but Microsoft could then pull out of the agreement, effectively causing OpenAI to go bankrupt. They would also be the first bidders if it were on sale ;-)