Hoffman Exits Microsoft Board for AI Drug Discovery Bet at Manus
Reid Hoffman has been on Microsoft’s board for nearly a decade. He watched the company invest in OpenAI, absorb Inflexion AI, and become one of the most AI-dominant companies in the world. Now he is walking away from all of it. Hoffman will not stand for re-election to Microsoft’s board. He is heading back to founder mode. The vehicle is Manus, his AI drug discovery startup targeting cancer.
A Decade That Shaped Microsoft’s AI Era
Hoffman joined the board after Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. He later served during major AI milestones, including Microsoft’s early $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019.
He also sat on the board when Microsoft completed a $650 million acqui-hire deal involving his AI startup Inflexion AI, which brought co-founder Mustafa Suleyman into the company. On June 2, Hoffman informed Microsoft he would not seek re-election at the 2026 shareholder meeting, though he will remain until then.
His exit ends a board tenure that tracked Microsoft’s rise into one of the world’s most valuable AI companies.
Meanwhile, Hoffman is leaning into a new role at Manus, a drug discovery startup that has raised over $50 million in seed funding. He serves as co-founder and chairman, while physician and Pulitzer Prize winner Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee leads the company.
Hoffman describes Manus as part of “Move 37†AI, referring to systems that generate solutions beyond human intuition, especially in cancer research. He has also signalled a shift to “founder mode,†focusing more directly on building the company rather than advising from the sidelines.
