Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn, will not run for re-election to Microsoft’s board this year, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.
Mr. Hoffman has been a key figure in forging Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI, but he also brought challenges. They included financial conflicts with his start-up investments and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which lasted until just months before the financier and sex offender was arrested a second time.
In a podcast interview with Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, that was released on Friday morning, Mr. Hoffman called serving on the board “a huge honor and pleasure.”
Mr. Hoffman, 58, said he would leave the board because a start-up he co-founded was seeing remarkable progress in its efforts to use artificial intelligence to improve cancer treatment. “I should really be transitioning right now to being founder mode,” he said.
“You will definitely be missed on the Microsoft board,” Mr. Nadella said on the podcast.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Hoffman said he was traveling and unable to comment further.
Microsoft’s filing thanked Mr. Hoffman for his service and said his decision “is not as a result of any disagreement with management on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.” It said he would serve until the company’s annual meeting, which is typically in December, and declined to comment further.
Mr. Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board in 2017, after it bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. He was an early investor in OpenAI, and helped forge its relationship with Microsoft when the start-up was looking for more funding to advance its A.I. development. Mr. Hoffman joined OpenAI’s board of directors in 2018 but stepped down five years later.
Microsoft put $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019, and Mr. Hoffman was there when OpenAI demonstrated its technology to Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, a critical meeting that cemented Microsoft’s further investment and close partnership with the start-up.
In a lawsuit brought against OpenAI and Microsoft in 2024, Elon Musk, who helped found OpenAI but eventually left the A.I. research lab, accused Mr. Hoffman and another Microsoft executive of violating antitrust laws because of their involvement with both companies.
Mr. Musk lost the case after it went to trial this spring, but he has vowed to appeal. The court did not hear the antitrust claims during the trial, focusing instead on claims against Microsoft, OpenAI and two OpenAI founders: Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
Mr. Hoffman was also a co-founder of and investor in Inflection AI, another A.I. start-up. He was part of Microsoft’s vetting process when the company paid more than $650 million two years ago to license Inflection’s technology, hired much of its staff and made an Inflection co-founder, Mustafa Suleyman, a top Microsoft executive.
(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft on claims of copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The companies deny any improper actions.)
Mr. Hoffman’s personal and political entanglements have brought public attention to Microsoft’s typically low-key board. He has been a major Democratic donor and has defended his funding of E. Jean Carroll’s sexual-abuse lawsuit against President Trump, which has made him a right-wing target.
And after being introduced to Mr. Epstein by a leader at M.I.T.’s Media Lab, Mr. Hoffman remained in touch with the financier for several years. He visited Mr. Epstein’s island, swapped gifts and at one point told Mr. Epstein that he had been thinking of ways to help with negative media attention online, The Times reported this year.
He met with Mr. Epstein over Skype and at times updated him on his interactions with Mr. Gates through at least late 2018, documents show. Mr. Epstein was arrested in July 2019.
Mr. Hoffman told The Times this year that he wanted the Trump administration to release all files related to Mr. Epstein and prosecute those responsible for criminal behavior. “I welcome all the work that is being done by the press and those online to look into any and all Epstein connections to expose those who committed crimes,” he said.
Karen Weise writes about technology for The Times and is based in Seattle. Her coverage focuses on Amazon and Microsoft, two of the most powerful companies in America.
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