Obviously the Microsoft thing is a negotiation tactic. It does make sense from an IP and hardware perspective, but I'm sure the team would be less than enthused. I think Sam's still hoping to figure out how to return to OpenAI.
One thing appears certain to me, which is that Sam won't join Microsoft. That's because his and openais employees payday is tied to openai specifically.
Maybe hackernews has completely over-reacted making all these claims like "OpenAI is dead", "Ilya is stupid and finished" and ultimately, Sam doesn't really have the claimed, unlimited leverage most people seem to believe he does ?
I can't stop thinking about all the "Faceboo is dead" talk only a few months ago. I dislike FB entirely, it was completely wrong to even entertain the idea FB / Meta is dead. Plenty of people did though.