They could, but they'd be massively hamstrung by lack of GPU's. Pretty much all supply is locked up for a good few years right now.

Assuming a MAG wont offer it.

The new models and data would stay at OpenAI. You can have thousands of researchers and compute, but if you don’t have “it”, you are behind (ask Google).

In Microsoft he still has access to the models, and that’s all he needs to execute his ideas.

Should tell you something that he didn't. And no, I am not talking about ethics here.

There must be an insane number of non-competes though, to stop that? Especially with the amount of VC funding - that must have been included?

Non-competes are not legally enforcable in California, or so I hear.

I think the only edge cases are for executives of companies, and even then it's pretty limited, but I imagine this could be one of the examples. IANAL though - it's just from what I've seen discussed elsewhere.

https://www.ottingerlaw.com/blog/executives-should-not-ignor...

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...

Yes, however they’ll be shielded from lawsuits from OpenAI at Microsoft.

> most of the current OpenAI staff would follow him

Source please? This just keeps getting repeated but there’s extremely limited public support and neither Sam’s nor the board’s decisions indicate he has a whole lot of leverage.