Reid Hoffman is leaving Microsoft’s board to go ‘founder mode’ with startup Manus
Reid Hoffman is leaving Microsoft’s board to go ‘founder mode’ with startup Manus
里德·霍夫曼（Reid Hoffman）将离开微软董事会，投身初创公司 Manus 进入“创始人模式”
After a very profitable decade on Microsoft’s board, Reid Hoffman is stepping down, the company announced Thursday. Hoffman joined the board after Microsoft bought his company LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. 在微软董事会度过了收益颇丰的十年后，里德·霍夫曼（Reid Hoffman）即将卸任，该公司周四宣布了这一消息。2016 年，微软以 262 亿美元收购了霍夫曼创办的 LinkedIn，随后他加入了微软董事会。
Hoffman was on Microsoft’s board when it invested its first $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019. Hoffman was one of OpenAI’s original investors and served on the model maker’s board until he stepped down in 2023, citing too many potential conflicts of interest to continue. 2019 年微软首次向 OpenAI 投资 10 亿美元时，霍夫曼正是董事会成员。霍夫曼是 OpenAI 的原始投资者之一，并曾在该模型开发商的董事会任职，直到 2023 年因潜在利益冲突过多而辞职。
He was also on Microsoft’s board when the tech giant entered into one of those non-acquisition, acqui-hire deals for $650 million with his AI startup Inflection AI. Microsoft hired Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman through that deal. 当这家科技巨头以 6.5 亿美元的价格与霍夫曼的 AI 初创公司 Inflection AI 达成那种“非收购式人才并购”协议时，他也在微软董事会任职。微软通过该交易聘请了 Inflection 的联合创始人穆斯塔法·苏莱曼（Mustafa Suleyman）。
Hoffman said on a recent episode of his “Possible” podcast, while talking with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, that he’s ready to go “founder mode” with his latest AI startup, Manus. 在最近一期“Possible”播客节目中，霍夫曼在与微软首席执行官萨提亚·纳德拉（Satya Nadella）交谈时表示，他已准备好带着他最新的 AI 初创公司 Manus 进入“创始人模式”。
Manus is a drug discovery company that raised over $50 million through a couple of seed rounds last year. Hoffman is an investor, as is General Catalyst. Hoffman is cited as a co-founder of Manus and chairman of the board, not the CEO, though. That job belongs to Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, a physician, biologist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the 2011 book “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.” Manus 是一家药物研发公司，去年通过几轮种子轮融资筹集了超过 5000 万美元。霍夫曼和 General Catalyst 都是该公司的投资者。不过，霍夫曼被列为 Manus 的联合创始人和董事会主席，而非首席执行官。该职位由悉达多·穆克吉（Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee）博士担任，他是一位医生、生物学家，也是 2011 年普利策奖获奖作品《众病之王：癌症传》（The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer）的作者。
Still, Hoffman said he’s excited to give Manus more attention. “One of the things I realized over the last month was that, we’re seeing such progress with Manus. I need to get back to founder mode,” he said. 尽管如此，霍夫曼表示他很高兴能为 Manus 投入更多精力。“过去一个月我意识到的一件事是，我们在 Manus 上看到了巨大的进展。我需要回归创始人模式，”他说。
He believes the startup is making progress on “Move 37” AI, meaning AI that supersedes human creativity in chemistry, especially to combat various cancers, he added. 他补充说，他相信这家初创公司在“Move 37”AI 方面取得了进展，这意味着 AI 在化学领域超越了人类的创造力，特别是在对抗各种癌症方面。