Reid Hoffman built LinkedIn into a professional networking powerhouse. Microsoft bought it for $26.2 billion in 2016. Two years later he joined the software giant’s board. Now, after nearly a decade, he is walking away.
Microsoft disclosed the move in a regulatory filing this week. Hoffman informed the company on June 2 that he will not seek re-election at the 2026 annual shareholder meeting. He will serve until then. The departure carries no disagreement with management on operations, policies or practices, the filing stated. Microsoft’s SEC filing.
Yet the reason behind it reveals where Hoffman sees the next wave of opportunity. He plans to devote himself fully to Manus, the AI-powered drug discovery company he co-founded and chairs. Progress there has accelerated faster than expected. Hoffman wants to operate in what he calls founder mode.
“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 told Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on a recent episode of his Possible podcast. The exchange dropped the same day as the news.
The decision marks a return to hands-on creation for a man who has spent years at the intersection of venture capital, big tech and artificial intelligence. Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board shortly after the LinkedIn deal closed. His tenure coincided with some of the company’s most transformative moves in AI.
He was an early investor in OpenAI. He helped shape Microsoft’s initial $1 billion commitment in 2019. That partnership grew into a multiyear, multibillion-dollar alliance that redefined the industry. Hoffman also sat on OpenAI’s board until early 2023. He stepped down then, citing conflicts tied to his investment activity through Greylock Partners and personal stakes in AI startups. The New York Times reported on his bridging role and the complications that followed.
Conflicts surfaced again with Inflection AI. Hoffman co-founded that company too. Microsoft later struck a $650 million acqui-hire deal for its talent, including CEO Mustafa Suleyman. Hoffman remained on the Microsoft board throughout.
Now the pull of a new venture has proven stronger. Manus, also known as Manas AI, emerged in early 2025. Hoffman teamed with Siddhartha Mukherjee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning oncologist and author of The Emperor of All Maladies. The startup designs novel molecules using AI models, then validates them in wet labs. Its initial targets include breast cancer, prostate cancer and lymphoma.
Early funding stayed modest by AI standards. Manus raised $24.6 million in seed capital from Hoffman, General Catalyst and Greylock. Later rounds brought the total above $50 million. The company deliberately uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud and taps the software maker’s AI expertise. That connection now feels both convenient and constraining. TechCrunch detailed the funding and approach.
Hoffman believes Manus stands on the cusp of something significant. He points to “Move 37,” a reference to the surprising move AlphaGo made against a human champion in 2016. In chemistry, that moment would mean AI generating compounds beyond human intuition. Cancer drug discovery could accelerate dramatically if the models deliver.
“We’re seeing such progress with Manus,” Hoffman repeated on the podcast. The comment lands with weight. Biotech has long suffered from high failure rates and decade-long timelines. AI promises to shrink both. Yet skepticism persists. Many AI drug startups have raised hundreds of millions with limited clinical proof. Manus has taken a measured path so far.
Hoffman’s exit comes as Microsoft faces fresh questions about its AI partnerships and board composition. Investors and regulators scrutinize potential overlaps between directors’ personal investments and corporate strategy. His departure removes one such point of tension. But it also removes a director steeped in Silicon Valley’s AI inner circle.
Microsoft thanked Hoffman for his service. The board has guided the company through cloud growth, the OpenAI alliance, regulatory battles and massive capital spending on data centers. Stock performance during his tenure delivered substantial returns. One analysis called it a very profitable decade.
But Hoffman never planned to remain a professional board member forever. His career arc runs from PayPal to LinkedIn to venture investing at Greylock and now back to building. He co-founded Inflection AI before that company’s deal with Microsoft. He has invested in dozens of AI companies. Founder mode, as he describes it, means direct involvement in product, strategy and hiring. It means making decisions without the buffer of committees.
The timing feels deliberate. AI models have improved sharply in the past year. Tools that once produced plausible nonsense now generate hypotheses worth testing in labs. Companies like Isomorphic Labs from Google and several Chinese efforts are pouring resources into similar biology applications. Manus wants to compete by staying close to the science. Mukherjee’s medical expertise anchors that ambition.
Industry observers note the move fits a pattern. Talented operators who advise big tech often feel the tug of their own ideas once technology reaches an inflection point. Hoffman has talked openly about agents, superagency and AI’s effect on work. His new focus turns those concepts toward one of humanity’s hardest problems.
Still, questions linger. Can a startup with modest funding outpace better-capitalized rivals? Will regulatory hurdles in drug approval blunt AI’s speed advantage? Hoffman has made bold bets before. LinkedIn itself faced doubts in its early years.
For Microsoft the transition looks orderly. The board will likely add new voices with fresh AI or biotech perspectives. Hoffman’s relationships in the startup world remain valuable even without a director title. He has praised Nadella’s leadership repeatedly. Their podcast conversation carried warmth rather than friction.
And yet the news carries symbolic force. One of the most connected figures in tech has chosen a laboratory over the boardroom. He sees greater leverage in molecules than in minutes of governance meetings. That choice says as much about the state of AI as it does about Hoffman’s personal calculus.
Recent coverage captured the speed of events. On Thursday the filing appeared. By Friday the podcast aired and stories multiplied. Hoffman posted a video of his conversation with Nadella. The message was clear. Progress at Manus demanded his full attention. No drama. Just focus.
Biotech veterans caution that real drugs still take years. AI can suggest candidates faster. It cannot replace careful trials or regulatory scrutiny. Manus will need to prove its compounds work in patients, not just on paper. Hoffman knows this. His bet rests on the belief that the technology has reached a threshold where human-AI collaboration can compress timelines without sacrificing rigor.
The coming months will test that hypothesis. Hoffman returns to the founder’s chair. Microsoft loses a director with deep AI context. The broader industry watches to see whether this particular application of artificial intelligence can deliver medicines that matter. Early signs encouraged him enough to step away from one of the most influential corporate boards in technology.
That decision, more than any single quote or filing, signals confidence in what comes next.
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