Reid Hoffman Resigns from Microsoft Board to Reignite ‘Founder Mode’ with Startup Manus

Reid Hoffman, who has had a successful stint on Microsoft’s board, is stepping down, as announced on Thursday. He joined the board following Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016.

During his tenure, Hoffman witnessed Microsoft’s groundbreaking $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019. He was an early investor in OpenAI and served on its board until 2023, when he resigned due to potential conflicts of interest. He was also part of Microsoft’s board during the company’s non-acquisition, acqui-hire deal with Inflection AI, involving a $650 million investment that resulted in the hiring of Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman.

In a recent episode of his podcast “Possible,” Hoffman shared his excitement about returning to “founder mode” for his new AI initiative, Manus. Manus, a startup concentrating on drug discovery, secured over $50 million in funding through several seed rounds last year. Hoffman is an investor in the startup, alongside General Catalyst.

While he is recognized as a co-founder and chairman of Manus, the CEO position is held by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, a renowned physician and biologist who won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2011 book, “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.”

Despite not being the CEO, Hoffman is eager to focus more on Manus.

“In the past month, I’ve realized that we’re making considerable progress with Manus. It’s time for me to shift back into founder mode,” he said. He highlighted that the startup is making breakthroughs in “Move 37” AI, which refers to AI that exceeds human creativity in chemistry, particularly in the battle against various cancers.