- Reid Hoffman will leave Microsoft's board later this year to focus on his AI startup Manas
- Hoffman joined Microsoft's board in 2017 after its acquisition of LinkedIn, which he co-founded
- He played a key role linking Microsoft to Silicon Valley AI firms and was an investor at Greylock
Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist, will leave Microsoft Corp.'s board later this year, saying he wants to focus on his new artificial intelligence company.
“We're seeing such progress with Manas, I said ‘Look, I think I need to get back to founder mode,'” Hoffman said in a video posted to his social-media accounts. Manas is a drug-discovery startup.
“It's been a huge honor and pleasure” to serve on Microsoft's board, Hoffman said in the video, which shows a conversation with Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella.
Hoffman joined Microsoft's board in 2017 following the company's acquisition of LinkedIn, which he co-founded in 2002. He remained an active investor, including at Greylock, where he's a partner, and was a link between Microsoft and Silicon Valley AI companies.
Hoffman was also a onetime board member of close Microsoft partner OpenAI as well as Inflection AI, the startup whose brain trust Microsoft later hired to run its own large language model development.
Hoffman came under scrutiny earlier this year after the publication of documents from Jeffrey Epstein that suggested a long and personal relationship between the two men. Hoffman, who had previously said his connections with the disgraced late sex offender were limited to fundraising, told Bloomberg in March that Epstein's victims deserve justice and that he welcomed the work being done to expose those who committed crimes.
There's no indication in the Justice Department documents that Hoffman knew of Epstein's alleged ongoing crimes. Hoffman said the FBI had cleared him of any wrongdoing.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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